User talk:Paul Wormer/scratchbook

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The red line in the P-T diagram is the coexistence curve of two phases: I and II. For instance, II is the vapor and I is the liquid phase of the same compound.

The Clausius–Clapeyron relation, is a differential equation for a phase transition between two phases of a single compound. In a pressuretemperature (P–T) diagram, the line separating the two phases is known as the coexistence curve. The Clausius–Clapeyron relation gives the slope of this curve.

where is the slope of the coexistence curve, Q is the molar heat of transition (heat necessary to bring one mole of the compound from phase I into phase II), T is the absolute temperature, VI is the molar volume of phase I at given pressure and temperature.

The equation is named after Émile Clapeyron, who defined it around 1834, and Rudolf Clausius.

Derivation

The condition of thermodynamical equilibrium at constant pressure P and constant temperature T between two phases I and II is the equality of the molar Gibbs free energies G,

The molar Gibbs free energy of phase α (I or II) is equal to the chemical potential μα of this phase. Hence the equilibrium condition can be written as,

which holds along the red line in the figure.

If we go reversibly along the lower and upper green line in the P-T diagram, the chemical potentials of the phases change by ΔμI and ΔμII, for phase I and II, respectively, while the system stays in equilibrium,

From classical thermodynamics it is known that

Here Sα is the molar entropy (entropy per mole) of phase α and Vα is the molar volume (volume of one mole) of this phase. It follows that

From the second law of thermodynamics it is known that for a reversible phase transition it holds that

where Q is the amount of heat necessary to convert one mole of compound from phase I into phase II. Clearly, when phase I is liquid and phase II is vapor then QHv is the molar heat of vaporization. Elimination of the entropy and taking the limit of infinitesimally small changes in T and P gives the Clausius-Clapeyron equation,

Approximate solution

The Clausius-Clapeyron equation is exact. When we make the following assumptions we may perform the integration:

  • The molar volume of phase I is negligible compared to the molar volume of phase II, VII >> VI
  • The transition heat Q is constant over the temperature integration interval. The integration runs from the lower temperature T1 to the upper temperature T2.

Under these condition the Clausius-Clapeyron equation becomes

Integration gives

where ln is the natural (base e) logarithm.