Chemistry 2374A Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Surface Tension, Electric Potential, Hydrogen Bond
28 Dec 2017
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Chapter 2. 5 & 2. 6 (isothermal compression and expansion work & different kinds of work) We derived it for the expansion of a gas, but the same is true for any process. Constant external pressure = irreversible process of compression. Reversible work is the maximum amount of work that can be (cid:498)harvested(cid:499) from the system. In the chemical industry, every irreversibility has its cost: the obtainable amount of work decreases. In irreversible work, there are always energy lost due to energy that are not extracted from the system. Reversible process is typically slow, as the equilibrium of the system and the environment must always be ensuring to be equal. Irreversible process is faster than reversible process, however, the obtainable amount of work decreases. Important point: work is not a state function; there are many paths, which leads to different results. Aiming for reversibility is not always practical, because reversible = slow.
