Ioana Stanciu
The book entitled 'Chemical Thermodynamics and Kinetics' is structured into two chapters. Thermodynamics deals with the macroscopic study of phenomena of any nature, involving the transfer of energy in the form of heat and mechanical work. The name is derived from the Greek language and was created by Lord Kelvin, who also formulated the first definition of thermodynamics. In German, thermodynamics is also called Wärmelehre (theory of heat), a term created by Rudolf Clausius in his works on the mechanical theory of heat. Nowadays, thermodynamics represents one of the most logically structured branches of physics. Born at the beginning of the 19th century from the practical need to optimize the efficiency of steam engines, thermodynamics has become one of the classical disciplines of theoretical physics. Chemical kinetics (or reaction kinetics, less commonly called chemical dynamics) is a branch of physical chemistry that studies the rate and mechanism of chemical processes. It includes the investigation of how different experimental conditions can influence the rate of a chemical reaction and gathers information about reaction mechanisms and reaction transition states.
