The Gibbs Energy Basis and Construction of Boiling Point Diagrams in Binary Systems

Following an earlier paper (J. Chem. Educ. 1997, 74, 1080-1084) on binary melting point diagrams, a method of constructing boiling point diagrams for each of the kinds of behavior of binary miscible liquid pairs (those without an azeotrope, those with a maximum boiling azeotrope, and those with a minimum boiling azeotrope) is described and illustrated. Necessary data are the boiling points and enthalpies of vaporization of the components, and parameters relating the activity coefficients of the liquid components to their concentrations. The procedure requires the solution of pairs of simultaneous equations by the method of successive approximation. It is shown how the resulting diagram reflects the nature of the intermolecular forces and the proximity of the boiling points of the components to each other.