Equilibrium chemistry is a concerned with systems in chemical equilibrium. The unifying principle is that the free energy of a system at equilibrium is the minimum possible, so that the slope of the free energy with respect to the reaction coordinate is zero. This principle, applied to mixtures at equilibrium provides a definition of an equilibrium constant. Applications include acid-base, host-guest, metal-complex, solubility, partition, chromatography and redox equilibria.
Read more about Equilibrium Chemistry: Thermodynamic Equilibrium, Equilibrium Constant, Acid-base Equilibria, Host-guest Equilibria, Complexes of Metals, Redox Equilibria, Solubility, Partition, Chromatography, See Also, External Links
Famous quotes containing the words equilibrium and/or chemistry:
“They who feel cannot keep their minds in the equilibrium of a pair of scales: fear and hope have no equiponderant weights.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“For me chemistry represented an indefinite cloud of future potentialities which enveloped my life to come in black volutes torn by fiery flashes, like those which had hidden Mount Sinai. Like Moses, from that cloud I expected my law, the principle of order in me, around me, and in the world.... I would watch the buds swell in spring, the mica glint in the granite, my own hands, and I would say to myself: “I will understand this, too, I will understand everything.””
—Primo Levi (1919–1987)