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Description:

• Fundamental laws of thermodynamics; application to flow processes and to nonreacting mixtures; chemical and materials thermodynamics; nonideal solutions, phase diagrams and chemical equilibria.

Prerequisite knowledge and/or skills:

• Mathematics including understanding of partial derivatives and ability to solve algebraic equations mathematically
• Lower-division thermodynamics (at the level of freshman chemistry and sophomore physics courses)

Objectives:

• Present to the students the basis of the first and second laws of thermodynamics
• Explain the terminology of thermodynamics: system, properties, processes, reversibility, equilibrium, phases, components
• Apply the first and second laws to open and closed systems
• Introduce heat engines and their application to power cycles
• Treat solution thermodynamics and application to phase diagrams
• Cover chemical thermodynamics

Outcomes: Students must be able to:

• Understand and analyze processes: isothermal, isobaric, isentropic, cyclic
• Analyze steam power cycles for electricity production
• Use equations of state for nonideal gases and solids
• Apply equilibrium criteria to isolated systems and to chemical/materials systems
• Relate thermodynamic properties via partial derivatives, Maxwell’s relations
• Be able to interpret phase diagrams of binary systems from free energy vs composition curves
• Solve for equilibrium compositions in homogeneous and heterogeneous chemical reactions

Topics Covered:

1. Concepts and definitions
2. Equations of state – the steam tables
3. Applications of the First and Second laws to processes in closed systems
4. Heat engines, power cycles and the thermodynamics of open systems
5. Free energy and the criterion of equilibrium
6. Phase equilibrium in one - component systems
7. Thermodynamic relations
8. Mixtures and solutions
9. Binary phase equilibrium – phase diagrams
10. Chemical thermodynamics
11. Electrochemistry and aqueous equilibria
12. Biothermodynamics