Fundamentals of Modern Thermodynamics

Abstract

In 1931, Lars Onsager (1903–1976) proposed the first general relation in nonequilibrium thermodynamics: the reciprocity relation. The term “classical thermodynamics” also emerged no later than 1931 in the literature. Therefore, 1931 or even earlier (at the beginning of the 20th century) could be regarded as the starting point of modern thermodynamics. In 1959 the term “modern thermodynamics” had already been used in the summer program at MIT [2.1]. Important progress, such as Onsager’s reciprocity relation and Ilya Prigogine’s (1917—) dissipative structure, should also be regarded as the outstanding achievements of modern thermodynamics. However, modern thermodynamics has still been in its developing stage throughout the 20th century, some basic points of view and even the term “modern thermodynamics” had not been accepted in general.KeywordsEntropy ProductionIrreversible ProcessNonequilibrium StateDissipative StructureNonequilibrium ThermodynamicThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.