Preface
The present volume involves several alterations in the presentation of thermodynamic topics covered in the previous editions. Obviously, it is not a trivial exercise to present in a novel fashion any material that covers a period of more than 160 years. However, as best as I can determine the treatment of irreversible phenomena in Sections 1.13, 1.14, and 1.20 appears not to be widely known. Following much indecision, and with encouragement by the editors, I have dropped the various exercises requiring numerical evaluation of formulae developed in the text. After much thought I have also relegated the Carathrodory formulation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics (and a derivation of the Debye-Htickel equation) as a separate chapter to the end of the book. This permitted me to concentrate on a simpler exposition that directly links entropy to the reversible transfer of heat. It also provides a neat parallelism with the First Law that directly connects energy to work performance in an adiabatic process. A more careful discussion of the basic mechanism that forces electrochemical phenomena has been provided. I have also added material on the effects of curved interfaces and self assembly, and presented a more systematic formulation of the basics of irreversible processes. A discussion of critical phenomena is now included as a separate chapter. Lastly, the treatment of binary solutions has been expanded to deal with asymmetric properties of such systems.
The aim, as before, has been to avoid as much as possible a presentation that is simply a linear superposition of discussions found in many other textbooks.
Again, great stress is placed on the benefits of a systematic development of every topic, starting with modest beginnings, and reaping a whole cornucopia of results through self-contained logical operations and mathematical manipulations.
I am greatly indebted to many persons for providing help, advice, and criticism. Where appropriate I have acknowledged in footnotes the sources that I have closely followed in my expositions. In revising the earlier versions I am indebted to Professor Dor Ben-Amotz for many insightful discussions, especially those relating to irreversible phenomena. I also value the editorial help by personnel at Elsevier, Inc.
The book is dedicated to my parents who helped instill a love of the arts and sciences, to my late wife Gertrude Claryce Dahlbom Honig, to my present, equally wonderful wife, Josephine Neely Vamos Honig, and to the many children, both grown and young, who constitute the immediate family. All of them have been………
Welcome to our reading store! Remy reads books with you！ 