chem684: CHEMICAL THERMODYNAMICS

Course syllabus (PDF file) 

This the course page for Chemical Thermodynamics, taught by Prof. Pratyush Tiwary in Fall 2023. Relevant links, references etc. will be uploaded here. I will also upload homework/exam problems here (but likely not their solutions except those for midterms and final exam). The class will taught live in-person, with recorded videos through youtube available after class. However you should try to attend the class and engage in discussions if you want full participation points (see syllabus for details).


What's new:


Lectures:

Lectures 22, 23 (Dec 5, Dec 7): Free energies from Legendre transforms. Recap of semester.



Lectures 20, 21 (Nov 28, Nov 30): Construction of simple phase diagram in temperature-composition space. Common tangent construction. Phase separation in partially miscible systems. Miscibility gap and spinodal decomposition. Lever rule. Activities and real solutions. Equilibrium constants. 



Lecture 19 (Nov 14): Regular Solutions. Quasichemical model. Construction of simple phase diagram in temperature-composition space. 



Lectures 17, 18 (Nov 7, Nov 9): Critical Point. Thermodynamics of mixtures - ideal, regular, real. Regular Solutions. 



Lectures 15, 16 (Oct 31, Nov 2): Intro to phases, phase diagrams and phase transitions. Gibbs' phase rule. Properties of phase boundaries. Clapeyron equation. Clausius-Clapeyron equation. 



Lecture 14 (Oct 26): Fugacity. 



Lecture 13 (Oct 17): Gibbs-Helmholtz Equation. Using free energies to get intuition into basic phase transitions. 



Lectures 11, 12 (Oct 10, 12): Spontaneity, free energies, Maxwell Relations. Partial Molar quantities and Gibbs-Duhem again. 



Lecture 10 (Oct 3): Carnot's theorem. Spontaneity, free energies.



Lectures 8, 9 (Sep 26, 28): Recap reversible/irreversible work and Clausius Inequality. Heat Capacities. Enthalpy. Describing reversible isothermal expansion of a perfect gas powered by heat capacity. Carnot's theorem. 



Lecture 7 (Sep 19): Reversible work is higher than irreversible work. Clausius Inequality. 



Lectures 5-6 (Sep 12, Sep 14): Equations of state and information (in)completeness. Euler and Gibbs Duhem equations. Illustrations for ideal gas. Concavity of entropy and its consequences. 



Lectures 3-4 (Sep 5, Sep 7): Developing intuition for Callen's postulate 2 or the 2nd law of thermodynamics. 1st law of thermodynamics. Integrated first and second laws. Thermodynamic temperature, pressure and chemical potential, and why they make sense. 



Lectures 1-2 (Aug 29, Aug 31): Course overview; What is Thermodynamics? Callen's postulate 1: there exists an equilibrium state. Callen's postulate 2: there exists a function known as Entropy for equilibrium states, which has nice mathematical properties.