G. Spinolo et al., AN EXACT AND SIMPLE APPROACH TO LOG-LOG PLOTS FOR DEFECT AND IONIC EQUILIBRIA, Zeitschrift fur Naturforschung. A, A journal of physical sciences, 52(8-9), 1997, pp. 629-636
An alternative approach to log-log plots for defect equilibria in the
solid state and ionic equilibria in solution is presented. The method
is based on the strictly monotone character of the functional dependen
ce of an externally controlled thermodynamic variable (e.g. the oxygen
partial pressure P(O-2) for the defect equilibria in a simple oxide,
or a total concentration for the ionic equilibria in solution) on a ch
emically relevant compositional variable (such as the electron concent
ration n for defect equilibria, or [H3O+] or a free ligand concentrati
on for solution equilibria). This functional dependency can be safely
inverted. The concentration of all species and the externally controll
ed thermodynamic variable can be calculated as a function of the chemi
cally relevant compositional variable. The appropriate plots are then
obtained using naively a spreadsheet program. This method gives exact
results in many more cases than the traditional approach.