Thermodynamic properties of bromine fluorene derivatives: An experimental and computational study

Highlights: • Vapour pressures of two bromine derivatives of fluorene were measured. • Combustion energies of two bromine derivatives of fluorene were determined. • Standard molar ΔH, ΔS and ΔG of sublimation and vapourisation were derived. • Standard molar ΔH, ΔS and ΔG of formation in crystal and gas phases were calculated. • Gas phase ΔH of formation was also estimated by quantum chemical calculations. - Abstract: This report presents a comprehensive experimental and computational study of the thermodynamic properties of two bromine fluorene derivatives: 2-bromofluorene and 2,7-dibromofluorene. The standard (p° = 0.1 MPa) molar enthalpies of formation in the crystalline phase of these compounds were derived from the standard molar energies of combustion, in oxygen, at T = 298.15 K, measured by rotating bomb combustion calorimetry. The vapour pressures of the crystalline phase of the two compounds were measured using the Knudsen effusion method and a static method that has also been used to measure the liquid vapour pressures of 2-bromofluorene. From these results the standard molar enthalpies, entropies and Gibbs energies of sublimation of the two compounds studied and of vapourisation of 2-bromofluorene were derived. The enthalpies and temperatures of fusion were determined from DSC experiments. Derived results of standard enthalpies and Gibbs energies of formation, in both gaseous and crystalline phases, were compared with the ones reported in the literature for fluorene. The experimental values of the gas-phase enthalpies of formation of each compound were compared with estimates based on density functional theory calculations using the B3LYP hybrid exchange–correlation energy functional with the 6-311++G(d,p) basis set