Introduction to Thermodynamics

Introduction to
Thermodynamics
Unit Topic: Thermodynamics
Class: Honors Chemistry
Mr. Odom

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Introduction to Thermodynamics

Lecture Objectives and California Content

Standards
Lesson Objectives
1. Understand that heat energy can be transferred in several different ways and that heat energy
always flows from a hotter substance to colder.
2. Identify the heat transferring mechanisms for many real-life situations.
3. Be able to calculate internal energy changes in many real-life situations, including temperature
change and phase change.

California Content Standards

1. Students know how to describe temperature and heat flow in terms of the motion of molecules
(or atoms).
2. Students know energy is released when a material condenses or freezes and is absorbed when a
material evaporates or melts.
3. Students know how to solve problems involving heat flow and temperature changes, using known
values of specific heat and latent heat of phase change.

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Introduction to Thermodynamics

Energy: The Most Important Concept in

Science and Engineering

Science is about discovering the way

that the universe works. Engineering
uses the knowledge from science to
build new technologies. Advances in
virtual reality technology like in the
picture above may change education
as we know it.

Energy is one of the most abstract and complex concepts in the sciences and it requires
that we understand some principles borrowed from physics like kinetic energy and work.
We have done foundation lecture talking about these topics in energy and are now ready to
apply our background knowledge to understanding heat energy change. All 3 of the major
sciences are intimately connected through energy changes. We often talk about the big
picture in this class. Taking a step back and seeing how all the pieces fit together to solve a
problem. Energy is the biggest picture in science. It connects all of the pieces. Engineers
use the discoveries made from scientific research to actually build things in the physical
world. There are many different kinds of engineers just like there are many different kinds
of scientists, and if you like math then I highly recommend that you consider a future in
engineering. There is a huge job market, great pay, and a career that is guaranteed to be
interesting if you pick the right kind of engineering for you.

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Introduction to Thermodynamics

First Law of Thermodynamics:

Conservation of Energy

Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be transformed from one type to another.

Sunlight Photosynthesis Food

The sun converts nuclear energy Plants convert radiant energy into Animals convert stored chemical
into radiant energy. stored chemical energy. energy from plants into mechanical
energy.

As we have seen, atoms in the sun fuse under immense temperature and pressure and in
doing so release all kinds of electromagnetic radiation. Plants have specialized cells that are
designed to absorb the UV portion of the radiation. This radiant (light) energy is then
converted, through a complex process, into stored chemical energy. We know this storage
unit as glucose. Animals then consume plants with the stored energy from glucose and
convert it into another type of stored energy in the form of ATP (adenosine triphosphate).
This stored energy can then be converted into mechanical energy in the muscles when
needed. All sciences are connected. The way that energy is stored throughout this scenario
of energy transfer is in chemical bonds. When chemical reactions happen, energy is either
absorbed or released in the form of radiant and thermal heat energy. This will be the basis
of our study of thermodynamics. We are going to shift away from the biology and zoom in
on heat energy and chemical energy.

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Introduction to Thermodynamics

Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics

Heat is always transferred from a hotter

substance to a cooler substance, never
from cooler to hotter.

The red arrows indicate the flow of heat from the

finger to the ice cube. The kinetic energy from the
molecules in the finger are transferring that energy to
the ice cube through a process called conduction.

When we go from a warm room into a cooler area, we feel cold. But we are not absorbing
the cold, we are actively losing heat energy to the surrounding environment. We lose heat
energy in both the form of radiant heat and thermal heat, which we will discuss in the
following slides.

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Introduction to Thermodynamics

• How do items in the refrigerator get colder?

• How does the temperature inside a refrigerator

get colder in the first place?

Concept Check

Have them discuss in groups of 4.

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Introduction to Thermodynamics

What is temperature a measurement of?

hint: the answer is not “heat”

Concept Check

Have them discuss in their groups of 4.

Answer: average kinetic energy

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Introduction to Thermodynamics

Types of Heat Energy

As we have seen, there are 2 major types of energy that can be broken down into more
specific types. Kinetic energy is the energy of motion, potential energy is the energy of
position. The two types of heat energy, thermal and radiant, are both forms of kinetic
energy. Adding either type of heat energy to any substance will increase the kinetic energy
of that substance, but the way that temperature is increased is different. Thermal heat
energy can further be broken down into convection and conduction, but we will focus on
conduction for our purposes as it is much more relevant in understanding the concepts
behind our word problems.

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Introduction to Thermodynamics

Heat Transfer: Radiation and

Conduction

1) Radiation: The transfer of heat

through electromagnetic radiation.
Primarily infrared radiation. The warmth
you feel on your face from a campfire is
infrared light hitting your skin.
Combustion reactions like wood burning
release huge amounts of radiant heat.

2) Conduction: The transfer of heat

between two objects or substances
through physical contact. When two
objects touch, the hotter object
transfers its kinetic energy to the colder This light spectrum shows the many types of light separated by wavelength and
frequency. Infrared light, one of the mechanisms by which heat transfers, makes
object. up a significant portion of the light spectrum. Many chemical reactions release
infrared light that we detect as heat, notably combustion reactions.

Radiant heat energy is energy that is transferred through infrared radiation, or infrared
light. All substances absorb infrared radiation, and in doing so, their temperatures increase
because the kinetic energy of their molecules increase. Conduction is more direct.
Conduction is a transfer of kinetic energy through physical contact. As we have said, all
matter is in constant motion, even stationary solids. This is because even for solids, the
atoms that they are made of are constantly vibrating. Since each atom in a solid is
vibration, each atom has it’s own kinetic energy. Hot solids have atoms that are vibrating
faster than cold solids. If you bring a hotter solid into physical contact with a colder solid,
the hotter solid will physically transfer its kinetic energy to the colder object. The fast
vibrating atoms in the hotter solid physically touch the slower vibrating atoms in the colder
solid, and that friction make the colder atoms move faster. Both methods increase kinetic
energy. Radiant energy through infrared light, thermal energy through physical touch.

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Introduction to Thermodynamics

Describe how heat is transferred in the process of boiling

an egg over a gas stove.

Concept Check

Have them discuss in their groups of 4.

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Introduction to Thermodynamics

Internal Energy (U = Q + W)

Thermo-
dynamics

Internal
Enthalpy
Energy Think of the system as a balloon filled with
gases that are going to react. The balloon
is the system boundary and the gases inside
U=Q+ q= Hess's Bond are the system.
q = mL
W mcΔT Law Enthalpy

Two things are going to happen in the

system when the gases react:

There are two major topics in chemical thermodynamics that we are interested in for this
class: Internal Energy and Enthalpy. The rest of this lecture will focus on internal energy and
the way that heat energy exchanges between isolated systems. As always, we will try to
start with the easiest examples to build a foundation and work our way into more complex
problems. The equation U = Q + W will be used to solve problems involving internal energy
states of isolated systems. Internal energy is a measurement of all energy in a system. The
energy that we are most interested in for this class are kinetic energy of molecules,
potential energy stored in chemical bonds, and the ability to do work through the force of
pressure. In chemistry, we measure the internal energy difference of a system after a
chemical reaction has happened. What was the internal energy before the chemicals in our
system reacted, and what was the internal energy after they reacted. Your answer may be
negative or positive depending on if the system lost energy or gained energy.

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Introduction to Thermodynamics

Internal Energy (U = Q + W)

1) The reaction between the gases will cause the system to exchange heat (Q) with
the surroundings.
• Chemical reactions will either:
• Release heat to the surroundings (negative Q).
• Absorb heat from the surroundings (positive Q).

Haber
Equation 3 H2 (g) + N2 (g) → 2 NH3 (g) + heat

Chemical reactions either require the input of heat energy or they release heat energy,
depending on the reaction. In this example, our system is hydrogen and nitrogen gas inside
of a balloon. They react to form ammonia gas and heat. That heat that was released had to
come from somewhere. Well it came from the chemical potential energy in the chemical
bonds of the molecules. Chemical potential energy is converted to infrared heat energy and
is lost from the system. If U is our internal energy and Q is our heat energy, what sign do
you think that Q would have in our equation is heat energy is lost from the system? There
are only 2 factors we are worried about in calculating internal energy of a system at this
level of chemistry. Heat (Q) and Work (W). The heat we are worried about is strictly how
much heat was lost during the chemical reaction between hydrogen and nitrogen gas.

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Introduction to Thermodynamics

Internal Energy (U = Q + W)

2) The reaction between the gases will cause the system to “exchange
work” (W) with the surroundings.
• Chemical reactions cause either:
• The volume of the system to increase (negative W).
• Work done by the system to the surroundings.
• The volume of the system to decrease (positive W).
• Work done by the surroundings onto the system.

Reverse Haber
Equation
heat + 2 NH3 (g) → 3 H2 (g) + N2 (g)

Work is our second variable when calculating how much energy a system has. We can think
of work as how much volume a system either gains or loses. During a chemical reaction,
the number of moles of gas can change from the reactants to products. If the products
have more moles of gas than the reactants, then the pressure of the system will increase,
as will the volume. Remember that we are thinking about our system as a balloon. If the
reverse haber reaction goes forward, the pressure in the balloon will increase and the
balloon will have done work. When a system does work onto the surroundings, we can say
that it loses work. If the system “loses” work, what sign would W have in my U = Q + W
equation? A reaction that loses a mole of gas from reactants to products like the regular
Haber reaction would have a decrease in volume, work would be done onto the system.

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Introduction to Thermodynamics

U = +
Q W

What would the signs of Q and W be in a problem

about the Reverse Haber Equation?

Concept Check

Have them discuss in their groups of 4.

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Introduction to Thermodynamics

1. Many gases are mixed into a container to react together. The container loses heat to the environment and the
pressure of the container increases. Will the change in internal energy (U) be positive or negative?

2. A closed container absorbs 1452 J of energy during a chemical reaction. If the container also had 1.58 kJ of
work done to it, calculate the internal energy.

3. The internal energy of a system increased by 982 J when it absorbed 492 J of heat. Was work done by or on
the system? How much work was done?

Now You Try

Have them work in groups of 4 and race to the correct answers. Group that answers all
three correctly the fastest wins. Discuss strategies that may work to get the goal the
fastest. After a winner is declared we will discuss their strategy in getting the right answers
fastest, and their strategies in solving the problems.

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Introduction to Thermodynamics

Specific Heat
Capacity: q = mcΔT

Specific heat values like the ones in this tables are constants that are
specific to different substances. As we can see, water has a relatively
high specific heat. It can take relatively large amounts of heat energy
without raising its temperature significantly.

Specific heat capacity is a measurement of how easy or hard it is to raise the

temperature of a substance. More specifically, it is a measurement of how much
energy is required to raise 1 gram of a substance by 1 °C. Every substance has a
different specific heat capacity. Water has a relatively high specific heat capacity
and metals have relatively low specific heat capacities.

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Introduction to Thermodynamics

Since water has a high specific heat capacity, do you think

that it is easy or difficult to raise the temperature of
water? Why?

Concept Check

Have them discuss in their groups of 4.

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Introduction to Thermodynamics

Specific Heat Capacity: q = mcΔT

q = mcΔT

When calculating the heat energy change between two substances, we need to remember
that we are focusing on radiation and conduction to transfer heat. We also need to
remember that both of these processes increase the heat energy of a substance by
increasing the kinetic energy of those molecules. When we measure q in this equation, we
are interested in how much heat energy was transferred through either radiation or
conduction. When we want to how much energy (q) is required to heat a substance up, we
use q = mc delta T. We need to know the mass of what we are heating, the specific heat
capacity of what we are heating, and how much the temperature is going to change. We
can use this equation to calculate all sorts of heat energy change situations. Show basic
example of how you can have multiple q equations in a problem and how to approach
those problems.

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Introduction to Thermodynamics

Specific Heat Capacity:

q = mcΔT

Walk-Through Problem

Have them answer these questions and hold up their whiteboards with the answers.
Discuss the concept behind the answer first with one of the groups and then give your
explanation.

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Introduction to Thermodynamics

1) How much energy (in kJ) is required to raise the temperature of 100.0 grams of water from 18 °C to 25 °C?

2) If 6851 J of energy was required to raise a 150.0 gram piece of metal from 298 K to 328 K, what is the specific heat
capacity of the metal in J/g°C?

3) Two cups of water are mixed together. The first cup has 120.0 grams of water at a temperature of 25.0 °C. The second cup
has 90.0 grams of water at a temperature of 55.0 °C. What is the final temperature of the water mixture in °C?

4) After heating up a 100.0 gram piece of metal to 150.0 °C, I place it in a cup of cool water the water has a mass of 215.0
grams and a temperature of 25.0 °C. If the metal and water come to 37 °C, what is the specific heat of the metal in J/g°C?

Now You Try

Have them work in groups of 4 and race to the correct answers. Group that answers all four
correctly the fastest wins. Discuss strategies that may work to get the goal the fastest. After
a winner is declared we will discuss their strategy in getting the right answers fastest, and
their strategies in solving the problems.

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Introduction to Thermodynamics

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