This simulation shows two ways to represent the composition of a ternary mixture on a equilateral-triangle phase diagram. Drag the black dot, which represents the overall composition of the mixture, to any location within the triangle. Each corner of the triangle corresponds to a pure component. The mass fraction of a component in the mixture is read off the axis of the same color. In the "alternate view", the mass fraction of a component is determined using a different method. To quiz yourself on reading a ternary phase diagram, follow the directions to the top-right of the diagram. Ternary phase diagrams can also represent mole fractions instead of mass fractions.

A screencast video [1] shows how to use this simulation, and a second screencast [2] presents an example.

References:

This simulation was created in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, at University of Colorado Boulder for LearnChemE.com by Neil Hendren under the direction of Professor John L. Falconer. This simulation was prepared with financial support from the National Science Foundation. Address any questions or comments to learncheme@gmail.com. All of our simulations are open source, and are available on our LearnChemE Github repository.

Is your screen too small to fit this application? Try zooming-out on the web page (CTRL+"-" and CTRL+"=" on Windows, or ⌘+"-" and ⌘+"=" on Mac), then refreshing the page. This application is not compatible with Internet Explorer or web browsers that do not support WebGL and HTML5. Recommended browsers are the latest versions of: Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, and Opera.