What is the most fundamentally accurate way to calculate the distribution of a solid between the condensed, vapor, and/or liquid phases? Let's say I have a very small amount of elemental silver, Ag(s), (1E-10 mol) in a system filled with a large volume of a liquid that the solid is immiscible in. So assume the solid just sits on the surface of the liquid and interacts with the gas headspace. And the gas headspace above the liquid is some large volume, V=5000 L, of inert gas such as argon at P=1 atm and at T=900 C. This temperature is below the melting point of metallic silver, which is Tm = 961.78 C, but I want to prove or disprove the possibility of silver subliming in this atmosphere.
Given a silver vapor (sublimation) pressure equation (in mmHg) valid between 298 K to 1234.93 K (Tm):
log P_vap = -14900/T - 0.85 log T + 12.2
Does some portion (or all?) of the silver sublime and stay in the gas phase? What would be the most fundamental way to prove this?
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