The principles of construction of a machine language for physico-chemical analysis

Abstract

C ontemporary chemistry deals not only with individual substances, but also with systems of substances (alloys, solutions, etc.). A graphical method, based on the construction of composition-property graphs, is widely used to describe the vast amount of material accumulated in the study of such systems. Operations using graphs of this kind are basically different from those using linear and structural chemical formulae, and their combinations, the equations of chemical reactions. In 1925, it was stated by Kurnakov [1] that graphical methods of representing physical and chemical processes in equilibrium systems are in point of fact the basic elements of an international chemical geometrized language, analogous to, but more general than, the language of chemical formulae, including not only separate substances but also their combinations and all chemical changes in general. According to Kurnakov “the composition-property diagram is a graphical representation of the complex function which defines the relation between the composition of homogeneous bodies or phases formed in the system and their properties.”