Determination of equilibrium composition of thermally ionized monoatomic gas under different physical conditions

Abstract

Perfect gas mixtures that result from thermal ionization of spatially and chemically homogeneous monoatomic gases are considered. Equilibrium concentrations of the components of such mixtures are determined using integration over the momentum space and summation with respect to energy levels of the distribution functions that maximize the entropy of system under condition for constancy of the total number of nuclei and electrons. It is demonstrated that such a method allows significant simplification of the calculation of the equilibrium composition for ionized mixtures at different temperatures and makes it possible to study the degree of ionization of gas versus gas density and number in the periodic table of elements.