Monoclinic sulfur and rhombic sulfur are two allotropes of sulfur. In phase equilibria, part of the system that is having distinct boundary, mechanically separable and different chemical or physical properties that other part of the system is considered as a phase. Now I want to ask, do chemical properties of Allotropes differ and why so that we can consider them different phases?
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Solid allotropes of pretty much anything are different phases. They have different crystal structures, and you can't have a single phase with two different crystal structures inside it.
As for the other criteria, some of them are sufficient but not necessary, and some are difficult to check. The distinct boundary must be there, but that's a knowledge that comes from them being two phases and not vice versa. Physical properties are not all that different, though you can tell one allotrope from another by density. (We used a solution of $\ce{BaI2}$ to this end.)
Chemical properties are even more similar since the molecules are the same. I doubt that a purely chemical test can be devised. But then again, do we really need it?
answered Apr 18, 2017 at 9:27