Basic Concepts of Thermodynamics: Understanding Temperature, Pressure, and Equilibrium, Study notes of Physical Chemistry

Download Basic Concepts of Thermodynamics: Understanding Temperature, Pressure, and Equilibrium and more Study notes Physical Chemistry in PDF only on Docsity! CHEM 3520 Spring 2004 Basic Concepts of Thermodynamics Thermodynamics – literally means “heat movement”. – deals mainly with the energy but it also deals with other measurables too (an important aspect of thermodynamics is understanding of how these measurables relate to each other) – is the study of various properties and, particularly, the relations between the various properties of systems in equilibrium. – is primarily an experimental science that was developed in the 19th century. The development of thermodynamics along these lines is called classical thermodynamics. It is governed by few laws that are followed by all systems. Its development did not involve knowledge about the molecular structure but also could not give insight about the system at the molecular level. The statistical thermodynamics does that however. – We will cover the material as a mixture of classical and statistical thermodynamics. Terms and definitions: – System = the part of the world (Universe) that it is investigated – Surrounding = everything else – A system can be described by indicating: – its volume – its pressure – its temperature – its chemical composition (the number of atoms) – its chemical reactivity – Equations of state are mathematical formulations connecting system’s variables. – The quantities (variables or properties) describing macroscopic systems can be divided in: – Extensive properties – are directly proportional to the size of the system – Examples: V, m, E (or U) – Intensive properties – are independent of the size of the system – Examples: P, T, ρ ,V