Freezing-point Depression of Benzene Confined in Mesoporous Silica SBA-15 on Doping with a Slight Amount of Toluene: Ideal Behavior in a Nanometer-sized Space

We introduced benzene–toluene solution into the pores of the mesoporous silica material SBA-15 and investigated its fusion behavior using differential scanning calorimetry. On introduction into the pores, the concentration of the solution did not change. The introduced solution exhibited typical behavior of freezing-point depression upon the addition of a toluene component. We discuss this behavior and the large value of the slope of a plot of the fusion temperature of benzene in a confined sample against the logarithm of the molar fraction of benzene.