Statistical Thermodynamics

Description

This self-contained primer covers statistical thermodynamics in a rigorous yet approachable manner, making it the perfect text for undergraduates.

• Focused introductions designed to give students an in-depth understanding of a diverse range of important topics in modern chemistry.
• Frequent diagrams and margin notes support students in their learning.
• Questions at the end of the book and interactive online questions encourage active learning and promote deep understanding.
• A focus on the underlying physical chemistry helps introduce the mathematics in an approachable way.
• Short, relatively self-contained chapters means the text is digestible for students to learn from, and flexible for lecturers to teach from.

New to this edition

• An Online Resource Centre provides interactive questions for students and downloadable figures for instructors.
• An alternative derivation of the canonical ensemble is now provided in Chapter Four.
• New end of chapter summaries help students to understand the key 'take home' points for each topic.
• New self-test questions and numerical problems enable students to practice using the material covered in the primer to solve problems.

About the Author(s)

Andrew Maczek, Emeritus Professor, University of Sheffield, and Anthony Meijer, Reader in Theoretical Chemistry, University of Sheffield

Andrew Maczek, until his retirement, was a Senior Lecturer in Physical Chemistry at the University of Sheffield, where his research focused on the thermophysical behaviour of fluids. He obtained his first degree in Chemistry at the University of Oxford, where he stayed on to obtain his DPhil in Inorganic Chemistry with Courtney Philips. During a postdoctoral period at the University of Leeds he came under the influence of Peter Gray and happily converted to become a physical chemist. The first edition of this Primer was written during the years while he was actively engaged in academic pursuits at Sheffield.

Anthony Meijer is a reader in Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Sheffield, where he and his research group work on the theoretical study of chemical reactions using both electronic structure and quantum dynamics methods for a wide variety of systems from the formation of molecules in the interstellar medium to the vibrational control of electronically excited states. He obtained an MSc in Chemistry from the University of Utrecht before obtaining a PhD with Ad van der Avoird at the University of Nijmegen. He has been at Sheffield for the past 13 years.

Table of Contents

1:The Boltzmann law
2:Sum over states: the molecular partition function
3:Applications of the molecular partition function
4:From molecule to mole: the canonical partition function
5:Distinguishable and indistinguishable particles
6:Two-level systems: a case study
7:Thermodynamic functions: towards a statistical toolkit
8:The ideal monatomic gas: the translational partition function
9:The ideal diatomic gas: internal degrees of freedom
10:The ideal diatomic gas: the rotational partition function
11:ortho and para spin states: a case study
12:The ideal diatomic gas: the vibrational partition function
13:The electronic partition function
14:Heat capacity and Third Law entropy: two case studies
15:Calculating equilibrium constants
Questions and Problems
Additional Mathematical Aspects

Reviews

"The approachability of the text and the angle adopted by the authors makes the book a useful reference for my course." - Dr Mark Miller, Durham University

Additional Resources

Online Resource Centre:
The Online Resource Centre to accompany Statistical Thermodynamics features:

For registered adopters of the text:
· Figures from the book available to download

For students:
· Worked solutions to the questions and problems at the end of the book.
· Multiple-choice questions for self-directed learning