Template for triangular diagram in MS Excel
Free template for triangular diagram in MS Excel
Download a template for making triangular phase diagrams in Microsoft Excel by clicking the button below, or the diagram.
With this template, it is easy to plot data in triangular diagrams. Vapor-liquid equilibrium, solid-liquid equilibrium, liquid-liquid equilibrium and others. The data for the three components can be given in mol percent or mass percent or any other unit that sums to 100.
The template was used for making the triangular diagram to the right and for diagrams on several other pages such as the phase diagrams for the mixed solvent systems.
How to calculate phase diagrams
Triangular diagrams are useful for making phase diagrams with three, four or five ions. The phase diagram above is for the AlCl3 – KCl – HCl – H2O system. This system contains three cations and one common anion, Al3+, K+, H+, and Cl–.The compositions displayed in the diagram are on a dry basis.
The diagram shows fields where AlCl3·6H2O and KCl are the stable solid phases. The line in the diagram indicates salt compositions, that are in equilibrium with both salts. But the water content is not shown. In order to show the water content, a third dimension is required. The water content could be displayed as a surface with different hights, as it is done in the Jänecke diagram. See for example the phase diagram for the the quaternary (Na+,K+)-(Cl–,SO42-)-H2O system. Alternatively, the water content can be shown as contour lines.
For systems with three ions and water, there are only three independent components and it is possible to display all the concentrations in triangular diagram. An example of this can be seen for the phase diagram for the NaNO3-Na2SO4-H2O system.
Phase diagrams for systems with 5 ions can be constructed by displaying surfaces that are all saturated with two salts. The lines in such a diagram indicates salt compositions in equilibrium with three salts. Contour lines are required to display the water content and the content of the salt that is saturated in all points.
More information about phase diagrams and how to calculate them can be found in “Electrolyte Solutions: Thermodynamics, Crystallization, Separation methods” https://doi.org/10.11581/dtu:00000073