Thermodynamics of materials and surfaces

At the end of the course, students should be able to describe a liquid or solid from a thermodynamic point of view, whether polyphase or polycrystalline. This means they must be able to define a phase, a phase mixture, calculate the associated free enthalpies and calculate the activity of a species. He or she must be able to complete binary (all) and ternary (simplest) phase diagrams, and draw areas of little detail to scale. They must also be able to explain the formation of the microstructure of a metal alloy or inorganic material from these diagrams, and be able to use them to produce a material with a given microstructure as a function of temperature and composition. Finally, it must be possible to predict the stability of a metal alloy as a function of temperature and atmosphere.

Thermodynamics of Materials
I- Chemical potential
II- Equilibrium diagrams
II-1. Phase rule
II-2. Phase diagram of a pure body
II-3. Phase diagrams of a binary mixture
II-4. Phase diagrams of a binary mixture
II-5. Phase diagrams of a ternary mixture
III- Thermodynamic characterization of mixtures and solutions
III-1. Expression of chemical potential for gases
III-2. Enthalpy of mixing of a solution
III-3. Definition of the activity of a species in solution
III-4. Ideality model - Real solutions for condensed phases
III-5. Behavior of solutes and solvent
III-6. Binary diagrams and thermodynamics
IV-Study of solid-gas reactions
IV-1. Solid-vapor equilibrium
IV-2. Ellingham diagram and limits of use


Thermodynamics of Surfaces and Interfaces
I- General points and definitions
I-1. Introduction
I-2. Notion of surface tension - Surface energy
I-3. Approximate calculations of the surface energy of a solid
II- Effect of surface curvature
II-1. Thermodynamic expression - Laplace's law
II-2. Vapour pressure
II-3. Solubility of small particles
II-4. Melting temperature of small particles
III- Equilibrium of several interfaces
IV- Measuring surface energy

Inorganic Materials Chemistry