Thermodynamics and Reaction Rates

book chapter

English

Thermodynamics has established in chemistry principally as a science determining possibility and direction of chemical transformations and giving conditions for their final, equilibrium state. Thermodynamics is usually thought to tell nothing about rates of these processes, their velocity of approaching equilibrium. Rates of chemical reactions belong to the domain of chemical kinetics. However, as thermodynamics gives some restriction on the course of chemical reactions, similar restrictions on their rates are continuously looked for. Similarly, because thermodynamic potentials are often formulated as driving forces for various processes, a thermodynamic driving force for reactions rates is searched for. Two such approaches will be discussed in this article. The first one are restrictions put by thermodynamics on values of rate constants in mass action rate equations. The second one is the use of the chemical potential as a general driving force for chemical reactions and also directly in rate equations. These two problems are in fact connected and are related to expressing reaction rate as a function of pertinent independent variables.

activity, chemical potential, kinetics, thermodynamics

PEKAŘ, M.

2011

1. 11. 2011

InTech

978-953-307-563-1

Thermodynamics Interaction Studies Solids, Liquids and Gases

není

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