Molecular Thermodynamics of Fluid-Phase Equilibria

Chapter 2 Classical Thermodynamics of Phase Equilibria

Thermodynamics as we know it today originated during the middle of the nineteenth century, and while the original thermodynamic formulas were applied to only a limited class of phenomena (such as heat engines), they have, as a result of suitable extensions, become applicable to a large number of problems in both physical and biological sciences. From its Greek root (therme, heat; dynamis, force), one might well wonder what “thermodynamics” has to do with the distribution of various components between various phases. Indeed, the early workers in thermodynamics were concerned only with systems of one component, and it was not until the monumental work of J. Willard Gibbs that thermodynamic ...