Gibbs Free Energy of Mixing
Recall that all spontaneous processes/reactions occur because of a decrease in Gibbs free energy. It should therefore not surprise you that the Gibbs free energy of mixing is always negative--otherwise mixing would not occur. The fact that
A < G°A and
B < G°B illustrates why compounds combine spontaneously--each compound is able to lower its free energy.
The above figure is hypothetical because we cannot measure or calculate the absolute Gibbs free energy of phases. For this reason,
is always expressed as a difference from some standard state measurement, as 
,
-
°, or
- G°.
The difference between the absolute Gibbs free energy G° per mole
° of a pure compound and the chemical potential per mole
of dissolved compound is
A - G°A =
A -
°A = RT lnXA
implying that when the mineral is pure (X = 1) then

= 0, and when the mineral is infinitely dilute (X = 0) then the
chemical potential is undefined. For example, in a two-component mineral
if XA = 0.4, at T = 298 K,
A -
°A = 8.314 * 298 ln 0.4 = -2271 J
B -
°B = 8.314 * 298 ln 0.6 = -1266 J
Gmix line is the sum of the chemical potentials of the endmembers:
Gmix = RT (XA ln XA + XB ln XB) or
Gmix = RT
(Xi ln Xi)
Actually, all this discussion has been predicated on the assumption that
Hmix = 0. If this is not true,
Gmix is not a simple function of composition, but has the general form:
Depending on the relative values of
Hmix and -T
Smix,
the free energy of mixing may be negative throughout the whole
composition range if the entropic energy contribution outweighs the
enthalpy increase; this is more likely at higher temperature.
The two free energy minima in the above figure indicate that minerals of intermediate compositions can reduce their free energy by unmixing into two phases. This explains the appearance and driving force for exsolution. Note that this can only be true if
Hmix > 0, i.e., if 2
AB >
AA +
BB,
which makes sense because it means that the A-B bonds have a higher
free energy than the sum of the free energies of separate AA and BB
bonds.











