Solubility of Salicylic Acid in Some (Ethanol + Water) Mixtures at Different Temperatures: Determination, Correlation, Thermodynamics and Preferential Solvation

Abstract Equilibrium mole fraction solubility of salicylic acid in nine aqueous-ethanolic mixtures, as well as in neat water and neat ethanol, was determined at seven temperatures from T = (293.15 to 323.15) K. Salicylic acid solubility in these mixtures was adequately correlated with well-known correlation/prediction methods based on Jouyban-Acree model. Apparent thermodynamic quantities, i.e. Gibbs energy, enthalpy, and entropy, for the dissolution and mixing processes, were computed by means of the van’t Hoff and Gibbs equations. The enthalpy–entropy compensation plot of enthalpy vs. Gibbs energy of dissolution was not linear exhibiting positive slopes from neat water to the mixture of w 1 = 0.30 and from the mixture of w 1 = 0.50 to neat ethanol indicating enthalpy-driven drug transfer processes but negative in the interval of 0.30 < w 1 < 0.50 indicating entropy-driven drug transfer processes from more polar to less polar solvent systems. Moreover, by using the inverse Kirkwood–Buff integrals it is observed that salicylic acid is preferentially solvated by water molecules in water-rich mixtures but preferentially solvated by ethanol molecules in those mixtures of 0.24 < x 1 < 1.00.