Resumen de A Chemically Relevant Model for Teaching the Second Law of Thermodynamics

Tetsuo Morikawa, Bryce E. Williamson

• A thought experiment based on an 1895 experiment by Hans Jahn is suggested as a chemically relevant model for teaching the second law of thermodynamics at post-first-year university level. This model could supplement the heat-engine/Carnot-cycle model that currently prevails in explanations of the reversible limit. An ideal electrochemical cell in calorimeter A is connected, in circuit, to a resistor in calorimeter B. The heat of the electrochemical process is measured by A and the non-expansion work by B. Simple diagrams based on this model clearly illustrate the path dependence of heat and work and their relationships to the state functions ΔH, ΔG, and TΔS in the reversible limit.