Basic Elements of Chemical and Statistical Thermodynamics

Thermodynamics studies conversion of energy in various processes. Classical thermodynamics deals with the macroscopic properties of the system, i.e. temperature, pressure, volume and so on, and is based on the empirical laws, called the laws of thermodynamics. Chemical thermodynamics applies the thermodynamic description to the chemical reaction and allows calculation of the position of chemical equilibrium and thus the theoretical yield of a reaction. Statistical thermodynamics describes the properties of a system as an ensemble of individual particles and allows taking a deeper look onto the properties of the matter on molecular level, illustrating the basis for the laws of the classical thermodynamics. This chapter is meant to provide assistance to researchers that needto refresh the knowledge they obtained in college courses and gives some basis for furtherreading for those who need to learn thermodynamics in deeper detail. Keywords: chemical thermodynamics; classical thermodynamics; heat; work; internal energy; enthalpy; Gibbs free energy; Helmholtz energy; chemical equilibrium; Gibbs phase rule; statistical thermodynamics; ensemble; partition function