Abstract

Suggested by us physicochemical mechanics is based on mechanical ideas simple and intuitive unifying approach to describe all major laws of equilibrium and nonequilibrium thermodynamics including kinetics of elementary chemical reactions far from equilibrium. In this paper we suggest a new equation for chemical transport that generalizes the equilibrium Gibbs-Duhem equation. Using physicochemical mechanics we further demonstrate how it is possible to derive many classical equations of colloid science, including the Gibbs adsorption isotherm, the relationship between surface energy and curvature, the Young-Laplace equation, Kelvin’s equation for partial vapor pressure above a curved surface, the Ostwald equation describing the solubility of solid particles in liquid, the Gibbs-Thomson equation describing the increase of boiling temperature as a function of curvature, the Clausius-Clapeyron equation for vaporization, sublimation and fusion, Rehbinder’s effect for materials mechanics, the relation of the applied electric potential with the surface tension and the Lippmann and Frumkin electrocapillary equations. In all cases, we use the same mobility suggested by Einstein to describe Brownian motion. Now, based on mobility or the rate of any one transport process, using known molecular constants we can calculate the rates of all other transport processes and their equilibrium without additional experiments and computer simulations.

Keywords:Physicochemical mechanics; Equilibrium and nonequilibrium thermodynamics; Colloid phenomena fundamentals; Mobility