Contents:
Thermodynamics is the science that uses the First Law (energy is conserved) and the Second Law (entropy of the universe goes to a maximum) to describe how systems change when they interact with each other or with their surroundings. Thermodynamics was originally meant to increase the efficiency of steam engines, and has nowadays a prominent place in many scientific disciplines including cosmology, physics (phase transitions), chemistry (chemical reactions) and engineering (efficiency of energy conversion).
This course introduces thermodynamic concepts, including energy, enthalpy, entropy, chemical potential, Gibbs and Helmholtz energy. On the basis of the First and Second Law of thermodynamics, the equilibrium concept will be introduced and used to describe reversible and irreversible processes. The Gibbs energy has a central role in this. Given the molar Gibbs energies of the reactants and products involved in a process, it can be deduced in what direction a process tends to go, what will be the maximum yield of a particular product and how the direction or yield for a process can be influenced by changing temperature, pressure and composition of a system.
Learning outcomes:
After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to:
- describe simplifications that make thermodynamics quantitative
- identify thermodynamic concepts in real life applications;
- interpret real life processes and systems in terms of thermodynamic concepts;
- perform calculations of thermodynamic properties (e.g. heat, work, energy, entropy, molar Gibbs energy) for ideal gases, pure substances, (non-) ideal mixtures and electrochemical systems;
- calculate the change in the molar Gibbs energy of reactions and apply this to phase transitions, equilibria and chemical reactions.
