Phase Equilibria in the UreaBiuretWater System

Alexey L. Voskov,

Tatyana S. Babkina,

Alexander V. Kuznetsov,

and Irina A. Uspenskaya*

,

Chemistry Department, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119991 Moscow, Russia

Department of Materials Science, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119991 Moscow, Russia
ABSTRACT: A thermodynamic assessment of the ureabiuretwater
ternary system and its binary subsystems has been made. The Margules
model has been applied for the description of excess Gibbs energies of binary
solutions, and the properties of ternary solutions have been assessed by using
t he Mu g g i a ni me t ho d. Th e r mo dy na mi c p r o pe r t i e s of
(NH
2
CO)
2
NH(NH
2
)
2
CO (I) and (NH
2
CO)
2
NH0.7H
2
O (II) have been
estimated from the condition of equilibrium between the solution and
stochiometric phases. The liquidus surface and isothermal sections of the
phase diagram of the ureabiuretwater system at the temperature interval
T = (268 to 373) K have been calculated. The comparison of calculated and experimental data is discussed.

INTRODUCTION
Urea is one of the most important and demanded nitrogen
fertilizers. It manufactured by means of the Bazarov reaction,
that is, interaction between carbon dioxide and ammonia at
high pressures and temperatures. One of the possible
byproducts is biuret, and its formation depends on the
conditions of the process. This substance has a negative eect
on plant growth, and the upper limit of its fraction in the nal
product should not be larger than 3 wt %. A knowledge of the
liquidus in the ureabiuretwater ternary system is of practical
interest, but there are no systematic studies of phase equilibria
in this system.
The waterurea system is the most investigated of the three
binary subsystems, and the solubility of (NH
2
)
2
CO was
measured by Speyers,
1
Pinck and Kelly,
2
Janecke,
3
Shnidman
and Sunier,
4
Chadwell and Politi,
5
Kakinuma,
6
Frejacques,
7
Miller and Dittmar,
8
and Babkina and Kuznetsov
9
using
dierent methods. Phase diagrams of biuretwater and
biureturea systems were published in the articles of Rollet
et al.
10,11
and Babkina and Kuznetsov.
9
Isothermal sections of
the ternary phase diagram are shown in the monography of
Kucheriavij and Lebedev.
12
In the work of Barone et al.
13
the
enthalpy of dilution of urea and biuret aqueous solutions as well
as the enthalpy of mixing biuret and urea water solutions by the
ow microcalorimetry method at T = 298 K was investigated.
Innitely diluted water solutions of components were used as
their standard states. It was shown that obtained data can be
adequately described by using one term in the excess Gibbs
energy of solution; that is, the solutions are regular.
The aim of this work is the thermodynamic assessment of the
(NH
2
)
2
CO(NH
2
CO)
2
NHH
2
O ternary system based on the
existing experimental data and calculation of isothermal
sections of the ternary phase diagram. The convex hull
methods have been implemented in two packages PhDi and
TernAPI; the latter one was used in the present study for the
calculation of phase diagrams.
14,15

THERMODYNAMIC MODELS OF PHASES IN

BINARY AND TERNARY SYSTEMS
There are liquid solutions and stoichiometric solid phases in the
biuretureawater ternary system. All components are
insoluble in the solid state. Only two compounds,
(NH
2
CO)
2
NH(NH
2
)
2
CO (I) and (NH
2
CO)
2
NH0.7H
2
O
(II), are present in the binary subsystems, and no information
about ternary solid phases have been reported.
Model of Liquid. The liquid phase was described using the
MargulesMuggiani formalism. The Gibbs energy of an AB
binary solution was approximated by the Margules equation:
= +
= +
+ +
G T x TS x G x
RT x x x x
x x x A xA
( , ) ( ) ( )
((1 )ln(1 ) ln )
(1 )[(1 ) ]
mix
id
mix
ex
BA AB
(1)
The corresponding expressions for the chemical potentials of
components A and B are:
= + + +

RT x x A A A
x
ln(1 ) [ 2( )
(1 )]
A
l
A
,l 2
AB BA AB
(2)
= + + + RT x x A A A x ln (1 ) [ 2( ) ]
B
l
B
,l 2
BA AB BA
(3)
where
i

,l
is the Gibbs energy of pure liquid i; that is, the
symmetric system was chosen to represent the thermodynamic
functions of melts. The Gibbs energies of melting were
estimated using eq 4:
Received: July 25, 2012
Accepted: August 30, 2012
Article
pubs.acs.org/jced
XXXX American Chemical Society A dx.doi.org/10.1021/je300832f | J. Chem. Eng. Data XXXX, XXX, XXXXXX
=
= +

+
=
+ +

G T H T T S T
H T C T T
T
H T
T
C
T
T
H T C T
T C T
H T
T
C T T
( ) ( ) ( )
( ) ( )
( )
ln
( ( ) )
(1 ln )
( )
ln
p
p
p
p
p
m m m
m m m m
m m
m
m
m
m m m m
m m
m m
m
m (4)
In this equation it was assumed that the
m
C
p
= const. This
assumption is reasonable due to a relatively narrow temperature
range under investigation. Three constant parameters for each
component are required in this case: the temperature of fusion,
T
m
, enthalpy of fusion at T
m
,
m
H(T
m
), and change of heat
capacity during melting,
m
C
p
. Their values for biuret, urea,
and water are listed in Table 1.
In this work the values T
m
and
m
H(T
m
) for urea and biuret
recommended in ref 9 were used. They were obtained as the
mean of the most reliable literature data. The values of T
m
,

m
H(T
m
), and
m
C
p
for water were taken from ref 16.
The experimental heat capacity of solid urea
1719
in the
temperature interval (240 to 400) K was described by the
truncated equation of Berman and Brown
20
(C
p
= a + bT
0.5
,
where b < 0):
=

C T T ( ) (253.65 4) (2763.3 67) J mol K
p
urea,s 0.5 1 1
(5)
The heat capacity of liquid urea near the melting point was
taken from ref 18 as the average of seven experimental points.
=

C T ( ) (150.43 7) J mol K
p
liq
m
1 1
(6)
Equation 7 from ref 21 for the calculation of the heat capacity
of solid biuret over the temperature interval from (240 to 450)
K has been used:
= +

C T T ( ) (27.04 1) (0.3483 0.0030) J mol K
p
1 1
(7)
The dierence between the heat capacity of liquid and solid
biuret was estimated assuming equality of the relative heat
capacity change during melting for biuret and urea:
=

=
=

C T
C T
C T
C T
C
C
C T
C T
C T
C
C
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( ) 1
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
biuret,l
m
biuret,s
m
urea,l
m
urea,s
m
m
biuret
m
urea
biuret,s
m
urea,s
m
biuret,s
m
urea,l
urea,s
(8)
The model parameters A
AB
and A
BA
in eq 1 were evaluated
using MATLAB software, based on the experimental liquidus
data available in the literature.
The Muggiani method
22
was used to obtain the Gibbs energy
of the ternary liquid from the Gibbs energies of binary liquids:
= +
=
G RT x x G ln
i
i i mix
1
3
mix
ex
(9)
=
+ +

+
+ +

+
+ +

G
x x
x x x x
G
x x
x x x x
G
x x
x x x x
G
4
(2 )(2 )
[ ]
4
(2 )(2 )
[ ]
4
(2 )(2 )
[ ]
x
x
x
mix
ex 2 3
2 1 3 1
mix 23
ex
1 3
1 2 3 2
mix 13
ex
1 2
1 3 2 3
mix 12
ex
2
1
1
(10)
where numbers 1, 2, and 3 correspond to the urea, biuret, and
water; x
2
= x
2
+ x
1
/2, x
1
= x
1
+ x
2
/2, x
1
= x
1
+ x
3
/2. The values
of
mix
G
ij
ex
in square brackets were calculated by eq 1 with the
corresponding set of parameters A
AB
and A
BA
for each
subsystem. No ternary parameters were used for the liquid
phase.
Stoichiometric Phases. Both stoichiometric phases,
(NH
2
CO)
2
NH(NH
2
)
2
CO and (NH
2
CO)
2
NH0.7H
2
O, melt
incongruently at (389.8 and 384.1) K, respectively.
9
There are
no experimentally obtained values of thermodynamic properties
of phases I and II except for the heat of solution of biuret
hydrate.
23
Therefore, the Gibbs energies of these binary
compounds at various temperatures were estimated by using
the tangent line method
24
(see Figure 1).
Consider a binary solid compound in equilibrium with liquid.
According to the tangent line method, the Gibbs energy of the
reaction
+ =

x x (1 )A(liquid) B(liquid) A B (solid)
x x
s s
1
(11)
which corresponds to formation of a binary solid compound
from pure liquid components and can be expressed as

= | +

= +

=
=
=
G T G T x x
G T
x
x T x
G T
x
( ) ( ) ( )
( )
( , )
( )
x x
x x
x x
f mix
s l mix
1
liq l s mix
l
l
l
(12)

= +
+ +

G T
x
RT x x x
x A A x x
A A
( )
(ln ln(1 )) (1 2 )
((1 ) ) (1 )
( )
mix
BA AB
AB BA
(13)
Table 1. Thermodynamic Properties of Components (Urea,
Biuret, and Water) That Are Required for eq 4

m
H(T
m
) T
m

m
C
p
component Jmol
1
K Jmol
1
K
1
urea 14644 500 405.85 0.5 33.95 8
a
biuret 26100 500 473.8 0.4 55.98 13
a
water 6010 4 273.16 0.01 38.21 0.05
a
Estimated in this work.
Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data Article
dx.doi.org/10.1021/je300832f | J. Chem. Eng. Data XXXX, XXX, XXXXXX B
where x
l
and x
s
are the compositions of the liquid and solid
phases, respectively. The values of
f
G(T) calculated at various
temperatures can be tted to obtain
f
H
298
and
f
S
298
assuming that the enthalpy and entropy of reaction 11 are
independent of temperature.
= G T H T S ( )
f f 298 f 298
(14)
To calculate Gibbs energy formation from pure solid
components the Gibbs energy of melting of pure substances
are necessary:
= + + G T G T x G T x G T ( ) ( ) (1 ) ( ) ( )
f f
s
m A
s
m B
(15)

OPTIMIZATION OF MODEL PARAMETERS

The parameters of the Margules model for the liquid phase and
the
f
H
298
and
f
S
298
values for each binary compound were
obtained by a nonlinear least-squares method, using exper-
imental data on phase equilibria. The optimization was carried
out in two steps:
1. The model parameters for the liquid phase were obtained
from the liquidus in the binary systems by minimization
of the following (target function):

= +

x x
T T
T
( ) ( )
( )
i
i i i
x i i
i
i
T
exp calc 2 ( ) 2
exp calc
exp
2
( ) 2
(16)
where (x
i
exp
,T
i
exp
) and (x
i
calc
,T
i
calc
) are experimental and
calculated coordinates of the ith liquidus point,
respectively, and
i
(x)
and
i
(T)
are the corresponding
statistical weights. In the waterbiuret and ureabiuret
binary systems,
i
(x)
= 1 and
i
(T)
= 0. For the water
urea system,
i
(x)
= 1 and
i
(T)
= 0 for ordinary liquidus
points but for the eutectic,
i
(x)
=
i
(T)
= 20. The number
of data points and the values of the target function are
listed in Table 2.
2. Values of
f
H
298
and
f
S
298
for the binary stoichiometric
compounds were obtained by the minimization of the
target function:

=

+

+

T T
T
T T
T
G G
G
( )
i
i i
i
i
G
eut
calc
eut
exp
eut
exp
2
eut
2
per
calc
per
exp
per
exp
2
per
2
f
fit
f
calc
f
calc
2
2
(17)
where superscripts calc and exp correspond to calculated
and experimental values, respectively,
f
G
i
calc
is calculated
from eqs 12 and 13, and
f
G
i
fit
values are obtained from
the eq 14. T
eut
and T
per
are the eutectic and peritectic
temperatures. In the case of the ureabiuret system,
eut
= 1 and
per
= 2.5, and in the system waterbiuret,
per
= 0. In all cases,
i
G
= 1. Thermodynamic functions
dened this way are essentially ctitious values because
they are obtained by solving mathematically incorrect
inverse task of thermodynamics (an inverse task is a
reconstruction of thermodynamic properties from
equilibria only, this task has non single decision unlike
a direct task, where the equilibrium condition is
calculated on the basis of known thermodynamic
properties of coexisting phases). In ref 25 it was shown
that it is possible to reproduce conditions of phase
equilibria by means of these values with high accuracy,
but the probability of guessing real value of
thermodynamic property is low.
To nd the condence intervals of the model parameters, the
Jacobian

J
F
ij
i
j
m m 0, (18)
was calculated. Here, 1 i n, 1 j m, n is the total number
of experimental points, m is the number of parameters to be
estimated (i.e., nonlinear regression coecients) F
i
(
1
, ...,
p
) is
the i-th component of the vector function F (it is a dierence
between predicted and experimental values),
j
denotes model
parameters, and
0,m
stands for optimized model parameters.
Target functions (eq 16 and 17) can be represented as:
= F
i
i
2
(19)
We calculated the covariance matrix C = (J
T
J)
1
, which
diagonal elements C
jj
were used to calculate the condence
intervals of model parameters as
Figure 1. Tangent line connecting Gibbs energies of coexisting liquid
and solid phases in the waterbiuret system at T = 380 K. The curve is
the Gibbs energy of liquid; the solid line is a tangent line, and symbols
and dashed lines indicate values of variables (the molar fraction of
biuret and Gibbs energy) of coexisting liquid (l) and stoichiometric (s)
phases.
Table 2. Some Statistic Characteristics of Thermodynamic
Models of Melts in the Binary System with Urea, Biuret, and
Water (N is the Number of Points, is a Value of Target
Function)
system N
ureabiuret 17 1.310
3
waterbiuret 4 9.610
5
waterurea 80 3.010
2
Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data Article
dx.doi.org/10.1021/je300832f | J. Chem. Eng. Data XXXX, XXX, XXXXXX C
= t C s
j v jj 0.05, R
2
(20)
where t
0.05,v
is the Student test value for v = n m degrees of
freedom and a 95 % probability and s
R
2
is the residual variance.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Binary Systems. The rst study of the phase diagram of the
ureabiuret was reported by Rollet et al.
10
The components
were mixed in various ratios over the whole composition range
and studied by the thermal analysis method. During the
experiments, an interesting phenomenon was observed: rst
melting curves at random had a plateau at (379.1 or 384.1) K,
and heating conditions did not aect its position contrary
unlike to the second round of melting. Slow cooling of melts
resulted in a plateau at 384.1 K, while rapid cooling produced a
plateau at 379.1 K. The authors attributed these observations to
the removal of ammonia at temperatures above 400 K, which
would result in increasing the biuret content in the system.
However, we believe that the true reason for this phenomenon
is the formation of a stable or metastable eutectic depending on
the cooling and heating conditions. If to kinetic restrictions the
stoichiometric phase with equimolar ratio of components is not
formed, the metastable eutectic is observed at 379.1 K. If there
is enough time to form the compound, the stable eutectic point
is detected at 384.1 K. As can be seen from Figure 2, our
calculations substantiated this hypothesis (see Figure 2). The
solid lines in Figure 2 correspond to the stable phase diagram
while the dashed show metastable phase equilibria, symbols
illustrate experimental data.
Thermodynamic functions of the stoichiometric phase
(NH
2
CO)
2
NH(NH
2
)
2
CO were estimated as described in
previous sections. The composition of this phase reported in
the work of Babkina and Kuznetsov
9
was accepted in the
present study. The temperature dependence of the Gibbs
energy of formation from liquid (eq 21) or from solid
components (eq 22) can be expressed as

= +

G
T
(0.5[(NH CO) NH (NH ) CO])
(23.509 10) 10 (53.416 30) J mol K
f 2 2 2 2
3 1 1
(21)

= +

G
T
(0.5[(NH CO) NH (NH ) CO])
(5.852 10) 10 (14.214 30) J mol K
f 2 2 2 2
3 1 1
(22)
Phase equilibria were calculated assuming negligible mutual
solubility of solid components and so-called regular inter-
particle interactions in the liquid phase. Parameters of eq 1 for
the ureabiuret subsystem are listed in Table 3. The results of
Rollet et al.
10
at temperatures higher than 420 K were not used
for the determination of these parameters due to possible
decomposition of biuret during the experiments. The thermal
stability of biuret and the inuence of the heating rate on the
melting point of (NH
2
CO)
2
NH were discussed in detail
earlier.
9
Invariant points of the ureabiuret phase diagram are
given in Table 4. As can be seen from Figure 2, a good
agreement was obtained between the calculated lines and the
experimental points. This is to be expected, since most of the
experimental data were used for the assessment of model
parameters.
The phase diagram of the waterbiuret system was studied
in ref 11 at normal and elevated pressures. The equilibrium
phase boundaries were obtained by thermal analysis (analysis of
heating and cooling curves) and by determination of the
solubility limits, using visual observation of the disappearance
of the solid phases. A good agreement between the results
obtained by dierent methods was reported by Rollet and
Cohen-Adad.
11
The solubility of biuret in water at 273 K is
Figure 2. Phase diagram of the (NH
2
)
2
CO(NH
2
CO)
2
NH binary
system. Solid lines indicate the calculated diagram, dashed lines the
metastable eutectic equilibria, and symbols the experimental data: ,
Rollet et al.;
10
, Babkina and Kuznetsov.
9
Table 3. Parameters A
BA
and A
AB
of the Liquid Model Given
by eq 1 for the Binary Subsystems of the Urea(1)
Biuret(2)Water(3) Ternary System
subsystem A
BA
/Jmol
1
A
AB
/Jmol
1
(1)(2) (372 169) (372 169)
(2)(3) (466 198) (466 198)
(3)(1) (648 63) (390 196)
Table 4. Calculated Coordinates of Invariant Points in the
Urea(1)Biuret(2)Water(3) Ternary System
a
special point T/K x
2
x
3
(1)(2) eutectic 384.0 0.2095 0.0000
(1)(2) peritectic 390.3 0.2937 0.0000
(1)(2) eutectic 379.6 0.2469 0.0000
(no compounds)
b
(2)(3) eutectic 273.1 0.0009 0.9991
(2)(3) peritectic 384.4 0.2300 0.7700
(1)(3) eutectic 260.6 0.0000 0.8763
(1)(2)(3) eutectic 260.6 0.0004 0.8760
(1)(2)(3) eutectic 259.1 0.0170 0.8616
(no compounds)
b
(1)(2)(3) peritectic
c
363.4 0.1723 0.4268
a
Standard uncertainties u are: u(T) = 0.1 K and u(x) = 0.0001. These
uncertainties are not deviations of calculated values from the
experiment.
b
Metastable equilibria without binary compounds.
c
Coexistence of liquid phase, solid biuret, and binary compounds I
and II.
Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data Article
dx.doi.org/10.1021/je300832f | J. Chem. Eng. Data XXXX, XXX, XXXXXX D
negligible and increases rapidly with increasing temperature,
reaching 1.2 wt %, 7.0 wt %, and 20.0 wt % at (298, 323, and
348) K, respectively. At the normal boiling point of the
saturated solution (378.2 K), the content of biuret is equal to
53.5 wt %. At atmospheric pressure crystalline monohydrate of
biuret is in the equilibrium with the liquid phase. Some
renements of the phase diagram and the composition of the
crystal hydrate were reported earlier.
9
The correct formula of
the hydrate was determined to be C
2
N
3
O
2
H
5
(0.70
0.05)H
2
O.
A good description of the phase boundaries in the binary
waterbiuret system was obtained with a single parameter A
AB
= A
BA
in eq 1 (see the second line in Table 3). The estimated
temperature dependence of the Gibbs energy of formation from
liquid components (eq 23) and from liquid water and solid
biuret (eq 24) may be expressed as

= +

G
T
1
1.7
[(NH CO) NH 0.7H O]
(24.273 2) 10 (55.515 5) J mol K
f 2 2 2
3 1 1
(23)

= +

G
T
1
1.7
[(NH CO) NH 0.7H O]
(13.682 2) 10 (34.932 5) J mol K
f 2 2 2
3 1 1
(24)
Experimental values of the heat released during dissolution of
solid biuret and hydrate of biuret in water were published in ref
23. The recalculation of the measured heat eects to the
enthalpy of the reaction
+
=
(NH CO) NH 0.7H O
(NH CO) NH 0.7H O
2 2 (s) 2 (l)
2 2 2 (s) (25)
demonstrates reasonable agreement between the experimental
and the calculated results. Since the thermochemical data were
not taken into account in the estimation of the hydrate
properties, this result conrms the correctness of the proposed
thermodynamic models of phases in the waterbiuret system.
Invariant points of the waterbiuret phase diagram are given in
Table 4.
The phase diagram of the waterbiuret system is presented
in Figure 3. Invariant points of the waterbiuret phase diagram
are given in Table 4.
The phase diagram of the ureawater system was studied
repeatedly.
19
The experimental data are in good agreement, so
they were used with equal statistic weight to obtain model
parameters for the liquid phase. Most authors agree that liquid
in this system is close to ideal. This was disputed in the work of
Shnidman and Sunier,
4
but later investigations
8
conrmed that
solutions containing more than 60 mol % urea demonstrate
ideal behavior. Our attempts to reproduce the solubility of urea
with G
ex
= 0 resulted in a satisfactory description of the liquidus
curve over a wide range of compositions but too low eutectic
temperature. Because the eutectic is determined by thermal
analysis with a relatively small error, we used a more complex
two-parametric Margules model for the calculation of phase
equilibria in the ureawater system. The values of A
AB
and A
BA
are listed in the last line of Table 3. The phase diagram is
presented in Figure 4, and the invariant points are given in
Table 4.
Ternary UreaBiuretWater System. The liquidus
surface of the ternary system was calculated with TernAPI
software.
15
As an example, the result of the calculation without
taking into account the binary stoichiometric phases is
presented in Figure 5. In this case one ternary and three
binary eutectics are realized in the ureabiuretwater system.
If both binary compounds I and II are taken into consideration,
three additional peritectics appear. Coordinates of all invariant
points in the ternary system are given in Table 4.
The calculated isothermal sections are shown in Figures 6, 7,
and 8. The sections in Figure 6 illustrate the origin of phase
equilibria in the temperature interval from 5 C (268.15 K) to
80 C (353.15 K). Both stoichiometric phases, I and II, were
taken into consideration in the calculation, so these diagrams
show stable phase equilibria in the ureabiuretwater system.
These results can be used for the optimization of the urea and
biuret mutual purication procedure.
Figure 3. Phase diagram of the H
2
O(NH
2
CO)
2
NH binary system.
Solid lines indicate the calculated diagram, symbols the experimental
data: , Rollet and Cohen-Adad;
11
, Babkina and Kuznetsov.
9
Figure 4. Phase diagram of the H
2
O(NH
2
)
2
CO binary system. Solid
lines indicate the calculated diagram, symbols the experimental data:
, Speyers et al.;
1
, Pinck and Kelly;
2

, Janecke;
3
, Miller and
Dittmar;
8
, Chadwell and Politi;
5
, Shnidman and Sunier;
4
,
Kakinuma;
6
*, Babkina and Kuznetsov.
9
Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data Article
dx.doi.org/10.1021/je300832f | J. Chem. Eng. Data XXXX, XXX, XXXXXX E
The second group of sections shown in Figure 7 illustrates
the variation of phase boundaries at 100 C (373.15 K) if one
or both binary compounds do not crystallize, for example, due
to kinetic restrictions. These metastable equilibria are very
important for the understanding of crystallization processes in
the ternary system. It is a well-known fact that metastable
phases may precipitate rst during fast cooling. Due to
crystallization of the binary compounds I or II, the liquid
phase eld is constricted, so an excess mutual solubility may be
observed under rapid cooling.
To the best of our knowledge, there is only one experimental
study of the ternary phase diagram.
26
These results as cited in
ref 12 are superimposed on the calculated phase diagram shown
in Figure 8. The agreement is fair, taking into account that no
details of the experiment are given in ref 12. The composition
of biuret hydrate equimolar in ref 12 should be noted, whereas
the ratio accepted in the present work is (NH
2
CO)
2
NH:H
2
O =
1:0.7.
Additional experimental investigations of the liquid compo-
sition in equilibrium with biuret hydrate and urea would be
useful.

CONCLUSIONS
In this work thermodynamic models of the liquid and solid
phases in the ureabiuretwater system were proposed. The
model parameters were optimized based on the available
experimental phase diagrams. It was shown that simple regular
(or subregular) solution models can be used for adequate
description of the phase equilibria in the binary subsystems.
Contrary to assumptions of some authors, the ideal solution
Figure 5. Liquidus surface of the ternary ureabiuretwater phase
diagram calculated without taking into account the binary compounds.
Figure 6. Calculated isothermal sections of the ureabiuretwater phase diagram: (a) 268.15 K, (b) 298.15 K, (c) 323.15 K, (d) 353.15 K. (I)
(NH
2
CO)
2
NH(NH
2
)
2
CO and (II) (NH
2
CO)
2
NH0.7H
2
O.
Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data Article
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model is not suitable for the simulation of the eutectic point in
the waterurea system.
The enthalpy and entropy of the ureabiuret binary
compound and of biuret hydrate were estimated using the
solubility data. An experimental conrmation of the proposed
thermodynamic properties is desirable. The estimated enthalpy
of biuret hydrate is in reasonable agreement with the
calorimetric data that were not used for the optimization of
model parameters.
The Gibbs energy of ternary liquid was extrapolated from the
binary subsystems using the Muggiani formalism. The liquidus
surface and isothermal sections of the ureabiuretwater stable
and metastable phase diagram were calculated. According to
our calculations, the solubility of biuret hydrate in water in the
Figure 7. Calculated isothermal sections of the ureabiuretwater phase diagram at 373.15 K: (a) without any binary compounds, (b) one
compound, I, in the biureturea system, (c) with only biuret hydrate, II, taking into account (d) assuming that both binary compounds I and II are
present.
Figure 8. Isothermal sections of the ureabiuretwater system: (a) 298.15 K, (b) 323.15 K. Dashed lines with circles correspond to the result of ref
12. Compositions are in weight percent.
Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data Article
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presence of urea is smaller than it was proposed earlier; this
result should be conrmed experimentally.

AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail: ira@td.chem.msu.ru.
Funding
The investigations were nancially supported by RFBR (Grant
No. 11-03-00499-a and 12-03-31069-mol-a) and the URAL-
CHEM OJSC.
Notes
The authors declare no competing nancial interest.

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