Triple Points & Gibbs Rule

Hello Everyone,

    I intend to write small note on triple point which I came across while studying for Phase Diagrams chapter of Material Science in section A of AMIE.

    In thermodynamics, the triple point of a substance is the temperature and pressure at which three phases (for example, gas, liquid, and solid) of that substance coexist in thermodynamic equilibrium. For example, the triple point of mercury occurs at a temperature of −38.8344 °C and a pressure of 0.2 mPa.

In addition to the triple point between solid, liquid, and gas, there can be triple points involving more than one solid phase, for substances with multiple polymorphs. Helium-4 is a special case that presents a triple point involving two different fluid phases (see lambda point). In general, for a system with p possible phases, there are triple points.

        The triple point of water is used to define the kelvin, the SI base unit of thermodynamic temperature. The number given for the temperature of the triple point of water is an exact definition rather than a measured quantity. The triple points of several substances are used to define points in the ITS-90 international temperature scale, ranging from the triple point of hydrogen (13.8033 K) to the triple point of water (273.16 K).

The above information is taken from Wikipedia. Please do refer to them for more info.