- Gibbs-Duhem equation
The Gibbs-Duhem equation in
thermodynamics describes the relationship between changes inchemical potential for components in a thermodynamical system ["A to Z of Thermodynamics" Pierre Perrot ISBN 0198565569] ::
where is the number of moles of component , the incremental increase in
chemical potential for this component, theentropy , theabsolute temperature ,volume and thepressure . It shows that in thermodynamics intensive properties are not independent but related, making it a mathematical statement of the state postulate. When pressure and temperature are variable, only of components have independent values for chemical potential andGibbs' phase rule follows. The law is named afterJosiah Gibbs andPierre Duhem .Derivation
Deriving the Gibbs-Duhem equation from basic thermodynamic state equations is straightforward ["Fundamentals of Engineering Thermodynamics, 3rd Edition" Michael J. Moran and Howard N. Shapiro, p. 538 ISBN 0-471-07681-3] . The
total differential of theGibbs free energy in terms of its natural variables is:.
With the substitution of two of the
Maxwell relations and the definition ofchemical potential , this is transformed into:cite web |url=http://www.chem.arizona.edu/~salzmanr/480a/480ants/opensys/opensys.html |title=Open Systems |accessdate=2007-10-11 |last=Salzman |first=William R. |date=2001-08-21 |work=Chemical Thermodynamics |publisher=University of Arizona |language=English |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20070707224025/http://www.chem.arizona.edu/~salzmanr/480a/480ants/opensys/opensys.html |archivedate=2007-07-07]:
As shown in the
Gibbs free energy article, the chemical potential is just another name for the partial molar (or just partial, depending on the units of N) Gibbs free energy, thus:.The total differential of this expression is
:
Subtracting the two expressions for the total differential of the Gibbs free energy gives the Gibbs-Duhem relation:
:
Applications
By normalizing the above equation by the extent of a system, such as the total number of moles, the Gibbs-Duhem equation provides a relationship between the intensive variables of the system. For a simple system with different components, there will be independent parameters or "degrees of freedom". For example, a gas cylinder filled with nitrogen is at room temperature (298 K) and at 2500 psi, we can determine the gas density, entropy or any other intensive thermodynamic variable. If instead the cylinder contains a nitrogen/oxygen mixture, we require an additional piece of information, usually the ratio of oxygen-to-nitrogen.
If multiple phases of matter are present, the chemical potential across a phase boundary are equal. ["Fundamentals of Engineering Thermodynamics, 3rd Edition" Michael J. Moran and Howard N. Shapiro, p. 710 ISBN 0-471-07681-3] Combining expressions for the Gibbs-Duhem equation in each phase and assuming systematic equilibrium (i.e. that the temperature and pressure is constant throughout the system), we recover the
Gibbs' phase rule .One particularly useful expression arises when considering binary solutions ["The Properties of Gases and Liquids, 5th Edition" Poling, Prausnitz and O'Connell, p. 8.13, ISBN 0-07-011682-2 ] . At constant P (
isobaric ) and T (isothermal ) it becomes::
or, normalizing by total number of moles in the system , substituting in the definition of
activity coefficient and using the identity ::
This equation is instrumental in the calculation of thermodynamically consistent and thus more accurate expressions for the
vapor pressure of a fluid mixture from limited experimental data.External links
* A lecture from www.chem.neu.edu [http://www.chem.neu.edu/Courses/1382Budil/PartialMolarQuantities.htm Link]
* A lecture from www.chem.arizona.edu [http://www.chem.arizona.edu/~salzmanr/480a/480ants/opensys/opensys.html Link]
* Encyclopedia Britannica entry [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9036750/Gibbs-Duhem-equation link]References
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