Matter and Molecules - A Broader View of Chemical Thermodynamics

MARCECA, ERNESTO; CORTI, HORACIO; FERNANDEZ PRINI, ROBERTO

Cognella

Lugar: San Diego; Año: 2018 p. 360

978-1-5165-2754-0

Teaching natural sciences is facing a critical moment. While research increasingly demands interdisciplinary approaches, many of today´s scientic textbooks still address the different disciplines in an isolated manner and concepts are discussed within unconnected and complex compartments. Moreover, since current research has shown that a more ample view is necessary to solve problems in science as well as in professional practice, specialists will need to comprehend the profound interplay arising among subdisciplines of a given area, as well as among various disciplines in natural sciences. Having these issues in mind, we propose a novel approach to several topics involving physical, chemical and/or biological phenomena. Instead of a rigid canonicalview of fundamental physical chemistry, we tried to bridge the gap among theareas of interest connected with physical chemistry.The book introduces the existing knowledge from a fresh angle, contributing newperspectives and points of view in the presentation and discussion of the different contents. It provides the tools that are necessary to study the properties of macroscopic systems, frequently referred to as chemical thermodynamics, including the science required to describe them.The aim of the book is not replacing any of the various books dealing with physical chemistry existing nowadays, but to complement the explanation of subjects making use of an interdisciplinary approach, stressing their application to other areas of science that must be faced and understood by chemists, biochemists, physicists, geologists, biologists, pharmacists, engineers, and others. We are convinced this will be the near future role of physical chemistry. So, our book will encompasses the analysis of molecular interactions and effects of size in the temporal and spatial scales of the processes described.Many of the aspects mentioned could, in principle, be developed without explicitreference to the molecular features of the systems being evaluated, as is typical of many classical and important books on thermodynamics. In this book we have considered it necessary to present the description of dierent subjects also emphasizing the atomic-molecular features of the systems being analyzed. As an example, this characteristic is very clear in the articles of physical chemistry published nowadays.Along part of its content, this book also highlights the role of time in the correct description of the behavior of material systems, whenever it is relevant. Time has an explicit role in the description of non-equilibrium systems, phenomena that constitute a natural extension of the central material developed throughout the book.Hence, a chapter is included dealing with linear irreversible phenomena, and a section is dedicated to metastable systems. Time, having an implicit role in equilibrium phenomena, acquires an explicit signicance, which is of practical importance, when dealing with new scientic elds that are frequently discussed. This is similar to its role in chemical kinetics.Rigor is maintained in the derivation of equations, whenever they are withinthe proposed general level we pretend. When this is not possible, we privilege to introduce the physical concepts involved instead of giving a formal mathematical derivation of equations that are frequently based on dubious or wrong concepts. In our opinion, this is the best way for the reader to tackle more complex processes.Different elds of physical knowledge can, in the future, get over what is discussed here for the purpose of getting a deeper insight into aspects dealt in the book, which may be required afterwards for scientic or professional practice. Moreover, we have used along the book comprehensive models to increase knowledge of the behavior of material systems constituted by atoms and molecules.In almost all the chapters of the book, worked examples have been included tounderline the application of the material contained in this volume and which are not usually covered in physical chemistry textbooks for undergraduates and graduate students.A final chapter, Future Development, was added to the 2010 edition in Spanish.This is a rather short chapter dedicated to applications of the toolbox built inthe main part of the text and now related to describe processes in the small time and/or spacial scales. This, already, is an important scientic eld, and its quick development suggests that it will remain so in the following years {for instance, to develop molecular biomimetic systems and molecular machines, as well as in many other basic sciences that do not usually take into account the molecular time and spacial scales.NOTE: This book is, to a large extent, a translation of Materia y Moléculas,Buenos Aires: EUDEBA, 2010. The English version has a few additions compared tothe previous edition in Spanish, especially to the last chapter. For instance, two relatively simple systems have been chosen from new publications in the eld of physical and natural sciences which seem to defy the second principle of thermodynamics. As it is clearly described in the two original papers, quantitative justications of their rather surprising results have been given in those articles. For the present book, these two examples are very valuable because they illustrate the fact that many of the contents in the various chapters of the book have a relevant role in the explanations provided, showing the need to connect various elds of knowledge.