AIChE Journal, Vol.46, No.12, 2435-2455, 2000
Representation of high-dimensional, molecular solid-liquid phase diagrams
A generic framework for the representation of multicomponent molecular solid-liquid phase diagrams in the form of digraphs is presented. Pure components, eutectic points, and saturation points in the solid-liquid composition space are represented as vertices of the digraph. These vertices are connected to form edges on the basis of the adjacency matrix, which is constructed by following a set of generic rules derived from the Gibbs phase rule. These edges form the boundaries of high-dimensional saturation varieties. Included in the framework is a procedure for plotting high-dimensional isobaric and isothermal isobaric phase behavior in the form of projections and cuts. With this framework, solid-liquid phase behavior of multicomponent systems can be easily represented and studied. Applications include facilitation of experimental development of high-dimensional phase diagrams and synthesis of crystallization-based separation processes. The latter is illustrated with the separation of a quinary mixture.