simplified by a judicious definition of the components as will be
discussed inSection 7.9.
In Eq.(3.1),Pis the number ofphasespresent at equilibrium at
a given point on the phase diagram. For example, inFig. 1.1, at any
point within the region labeled “liquid + bcc,”P¼2. At any point
in the region labeled “liquid,”P¼1.
In Eq.(3.1),Fis thenumber of degrees of freedomor thevari-
anceof the system at a given point on the phase diagram. It is the
number of variables that must be specified in order to completely
specify the state of the system. Let us number the components as
1, 2, 3,…,Cand designate the phases asα,β,γ,…. In most deri-
vations of the phase rule, the only variables considered areT,P,
and the compositions of the phases. However, since we also want
to treat more general phase diagrams in which chemical poten-
tials, volumes, enthalpies, etc. can also be variables, we shall
extend the list of variables as follows:
T,P
X
α
1
,X
α
2
,…,X
α
C1
αβ
,X
β
1
,X
β
2
,…,X
β
C1
,…
μ
1,μ
2,μ
3,…
V
α
,V
β
,V
γ
,…
S
α
,S
β
,S
γ
,…
whereX
i
αis the mole fraction of componentiin phaseα,μ iis the
chemical potential of componenti, andV
α
andS
α
are the volume
and entropy of phaseα. Alternatively, we may substitute mass
fractions for mole fractions and enthalpiesH
α
,H
β
,…forS
α
,S
β
,….
It must be stressed that the overall composition of the system is
not a variable in the sense of the phase rule. The composition vari-
ables are the compositions of the individual phases.
The total number of variables is thus equal to (2+P(C1)+
C+2P).
(Only (C1) independent composition variablesX
iare
required for each phase since the sum of the mole fractions is
unity.)
At equilibrium, the chemical potentialμ
iof each componenti
is the same in all phases (seeSection 2.8) as areTandP.μ
iis an
intensive variable (seeSection 2.8) that is a function ofT,P, and
composition. Hence,
μ
α
i
T,P,X
α
1
,X
α
2
,…,
αβ
¼μ
β
i
T,P,X
β
1
,X
β
2
,…,
¼⋯¼μ
i (3.2)
This yieldsPCequations relating the variables. Furthermore,
the volume of each phase is a function ofT,P,andcomposi-
tion,V
α
¼(T,P,X 1
α,X2
α,…,), as is the entropy of the phase
34Chapter 3THE GIBBS PHASE RULE