Chemistry Versus Physics

The following sections are included:

• Preface

• Contents

The following sections are included:

• Critical phenomena

• Chemical reactions

• Analogy between critical phenomena and the instability of chemical reactions

The following sections are included:

• The effect of pressure on the equilibrium constant and rate of reaction

• Effect of phase transformations on chemistry

• Critical slowing-down of chemical reactions

• Hydrodynamic equations of reactive binary mixture: piston effect
  • Heterogeneous reactions in near-critical systems
  • Dynamics of chemical reactions
  • Relaxation time of reactions
  • Hydrodynamic equations of a reactive binary mixtures
  • Hydrodynamic equations with statistically independent variables

• Critical anomalies of chemical equilibria

• Experiment

The following sections are included:

• Change of critical parameters due to a chemical reaction

• Modification of the critical indices

• Singularity in the degree of dissociation near a critical point

• Isotope exchange reaction in near-critical systems

• Singularities of transport coefficients in reactive systems
  • Mode-coupling analysis
  • Renormalization group methods

The following sections are included:

• Multiple solutions of the law of mass action

• Phase equilibrium in reactive binary mixtures quenched into a metastable state
  • Thermodynamic analysis of reactive binary mixtures
  • Thermodynamic analysis of reactive ternary mixtures
  • Kinetics of phase separation

• Phase equilibrium in reactive mixtures quenched into an unstable state

• Thermodynamics of a three-component plasma with a dissociative chemical reaction

The following sections are included:

• Solubility in supercritical fluids

• Azeotropic points in reactive many-component systems

• Melting point of reactive binary mixtures

• Double critical point

The following sections are included:

• Ultrasound attenuation in near-critical reactive mixtures

• Hydrodynamic analysis of the dispersion relation for sound waves

• Light scattering from reactive systems

• Inhomogeneous structure of near-critical reactive systems

The main body of this book consists of a detailed discussion of the inter-connection between “physical” critical phenomena and chemical reactions. Although these two phenomena appear to be quite different, deep analysis shows [22], [21] that the instability of different nonequilibrium phenomena (hydrodynamic and chemical instabilities, laser transitions, among others) show an intimate connection with equilibrium phase transitions and critical phenomena. Indeed, both are characterized by the enhancement of fluctuations, long-range order and critical slowing-down. Examples of this connection include the relation which has been established [213] between the laser threshold and the critical point of a second-order phase transition, and the analogy between phase transitions of the first and second order and hard and soft transitions of chemical reactions. The theory of critical phenomena, which is supported experimentally with a precision of few decimal places, dates from the 1960's and 1970's. It is not surprising that the methods used in this theory (renormalization group, mode-mode coupling, etc) have been successfully employed in modern chemistry…

The following sections are included:

• Bibliography

• Index