Abstract
FOR two phases of the same substance to be in equilibrium the thermodynamic potential, G, must have the same value in both phases. P. S. Epstein of “Thermodynamics”, p. 131; 1937) has suggested that, in order to derive the equilibrium conditions, the Taylor series for G should be expanded to terms of high order. If, in this expansion, the nth order derivatives of G are the lowest which have different values in the two phases, and all derivatives of lower order are equal in the two phases, then dnG′= dnG″ is the condition for equilibrium of the nth order, where the symbols (′) and (″) indicate the separate phases. E. F. Lype (Phys. Rev., 69, 652; June 1946) has followed Epstein's suggestion and derived from the above condition the set of thermodynamic relations, which, in addition to the equivalence of the potentials,, must hold for a system of a single substance which is in nth order equilibrium.
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Thermodynamic Equilibria of Higher Order. Nature 158, 456–457 (1946). https://doi.org/10.1038/158456b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/158456b0