A phase diagram is a chart, usually of temperature against composition, mapping which phases of a material are stable under given conditions and where they coexist or transform into one another. William Chandler Roberts-Austen's thermal analysis of iron-carbon alloys in the 1890s produced the first detailed diagram of this kind for a technologically important system, and Josiah Willard Gibbs's phase rule gives the diagram its theoretical footing. Materials science uses phase diagrams to predict and control the microstructure that heat treatment and alloying produce.
Facts
Proposed YearSourced to the subject's own accountGibbs derived the phase rule underlying phase diagrams in his paper On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances, published in parts between 1875 and 1878. Proposed BySourced to the subject's own account Connections
Associated With
Gibbs's phase rule, from his 1876 to 1878 papers on heterogeneous equilibrium, gave phase diagrams their theoretical foundation by relating phases, components and degrees of freedom.
Belongs To
Source Phase Diagram (Britannica)
Studied In
Source Condensed Matter Physics (Wikipedia)
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Also in Technology and Engineering Atlas: which this subject informed.
Sources
1. Phase Rule (Wikipedia)
Condensed Matter Physics (Wikipedia)
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