Phase rule and independent components

Although the Gibbs phase rule remains one of the cornerstones of thermodynamics, its usefulness has been severely limited by a lack of suitable framework to find the number of independent components in a system. This paper rectifies this shortcoming. It offers a comprehensive method, with suitable examples, to enable the determination of the minimum number of independent composition-parameters, which are to be understood as ‘components’ in the Gibbsian sense. The method offered here is particularly useful for complex systems composed of several elements and many phases. The present work also helps dispel much of the confusion that had beset the concept of independent components since the early days of Gibbs.