Insight into the role of ethylene glycol on thermodynamics and nucleation kinetics of dimethyl terephthalate in mixed solvent system

This paper investigates the effect of ethylene glycol addition on the crystallization behavior of dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) in solution. The DMT solubility in mixed solvent system (methanol-ethylene glycol) was determined by isothermal satiation approach, and the solubility was associated using seven models.

The model fitting results were consistent with the experimental values. Based on the results, the metastable zone width (MSZW) of DMT was detected by the polythermal approach; the modified Sangwal's theory was used to investigate the nucleation behavior, which can provide a new way of thought for better analysis of the crystallization behavior. The results demonstrated that MSZW was associated with various elements, such as cooling rate, saturation temperature and mass fraction of ethylene glycol.