Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Vol.109, No.38, 18103-18106, 2005
Vapor pressure and solid phases of methanol below its triple point temperature
We present an experimental work devoted to study of the thermodynamical properties of solid methanol. We combine Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and mass spectrometry (MS) to measure, for the first time, the vapor pressure of various methanol solid phases and determine their Clausius-Clapeyron equations. We perform our experiments between T = 130 K and the triple point temperature T-t = 175.61 K. When methanol is condensed from its vapor below T-t, we observe three different solid phases depending on temperature. A condensation at T = 130 K forms a metastable phase with an enthalpy of sublimation Delta Hmetastable-vapor = 42.9 +/- 0.5 kJ(.)mol(-1). Upon heating, this phase transforms itself at T approximate to 145 K to the alpha-phase that has an enthalpy of sublimation AH(alpha),(-vapor)., = 46.9 +/- 0.2 kJ(.)mol(-1). Cooling the alpha-phase does not lead back to the metastable phase, whereas heating this alpha-phase leads to the beta-phase occurrence at Talpha-beta = 157.36 K. This latter one is stable until T-t and has an enthalpy of sublimation Delta Hbeta-vapor = 44.2 0.5 kJ(.)mol(-1).