Isopiestic determination of the osmotic coefficients of NaNO₃ + Eu(NO₃)₃ + H₂O at 298.15 K and representation with an extended ion-interaction (Pitzer) model

Isopiestic vapor pressures were measured at 298.15 K for aqueous NaNO ₃ + Eu(NO₃)₃ solutions, using NaCl(aq) as the reference standard. Measurements were made for both binary (single salt) solutions and for ternary solutions of the following NaNO₃ ionic strength fractions: 0.05995, 0.08749, 0.16084, 0.27709, and 0.36313 over the water activity range 0.8951 ≤ a_w ≤ 0.9832. (These ionic strength fractions correspond to NaNO₃ molality fractions 0.27675, 0.36519, 0.53489, 0.69695, and 0.77381, respectively.) The results, and those of other studies for the two pure aqueous solutions, were used to determine the Pitzer model parameters for aqueous Eu(NO₃)₃ for molalities up to 3 mol kg^-1 and the two ternary (mixture) parameters = 0.367 ± 0.0035 and AEu,Na,NO = -0.0743 ± 0.0014. Some deviations of the measurements from the fitted model, of the order of +0.0075 in the osmotic coefficient, were noted for mixtures containing less than about 1 mol kg^-1 total NO₃^O. The use of the mixture parameters in the Pitzer model yields predicted trace activity coefficients of Eu³⁺ in 1 mol kg^-1 aqueous NaNO₃ almost a factor of 2 greater than if they are omitted.