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Table of Contents

GENERAL SUMMARY

In the preceding pages we have learned how the principles of the Phase Rule can be applied to the elucidation of various systems consisting of one component. In the present chapter it is proposed to give a short summary of the relationships we have met with, and also to discuss more generally how the Phase Rule applies to other one-component systems. On account of the fact that beginners are sometimes inclined to expect too much of the Phase Rule; to expect, for example, that it will inform them as to the exact behaviour of a substance, it may here be emphasized that the Phase Rule is a general rule; it informs us only as to the general conditions of equilibrium, and leaves the determination of the definite, numerical data to experiment.

Triple Point.—We have already (p. 28) defined a triple point in a one-component system, as being that pressure and temperature at which three phases coexist in equilibrium; it represents, therefore, an invariant system (p. 16). At the triple point also, three curves cut, viz. the curves representing the conditions of equilibrium of the three univariant systems formed by the combination of the three phases in pairs. The most common triple point of a one-component system is, of course, the triple point, solid, liquid, vapour (S-L-V), but other triple points^[99] are also possible when, as in the case of sulphur or benzophenone, polymorphic forms occur. Whether or not all the triple points can be experimentally realized will, of course, depend on circumstances. We shall, in the first place, consider only the triple point S-L-V.

As to the general arrangement of the three univariant curves around the triple point, the following rules may be given. (1) The prolongation of each of the curves beyond the triple point must lie between the other two curves. (2) The middle position at one and the same temperature in the neighbourhood of the triple point is taken by that curve (or its metastable prolongation) which represents the two phases of most widely differing specific volume.^[100] That is to say, if a line of constant temperature is drawn immediately above or below the triple point so as to cut the three curves—two stable curves and the metastable prolongation of the third—the position of the curves at that temperature will be such that the middle position is occupied by that curve (or its metastable prolongation) which represents the two phases of most widely differing specific volume.

Now, although these rules admit of a considerable variety of possible arrangements of curves around the triple point,^[101] only two of these have been experimentally obtained in the case of the triple point solid—liquid—vapour. At present, therefore, we shall consider only these two cases (Figs. 13 and 14).