Maxwell Relations - The Four Most Common Maxwell Relations

The Four Most Common Maxwell Relations

The four most common Maxwell relations are the equalities of the second derivatives of each of the four thermodynamic potentials, with respect to their thermal natural variable (temperature T; or entropy S) and their mechanical natural variable (pressure P; or volume V):

Maxwell's relations (common)

\begin{align} +\left(\frac{\partial T}{\partial V}\right)_S &=& -\left(\frac{\partial P}{\partial S}\right)_V &=& \frac{\partial^2 U }{\partial S \partial V}\\ +\left(\frac{\partial T}{\partial P}\right)_S &=& +\left(\frac{\partial V}{\partial S}\right)_P &=& \frac{\partial^2 H }{\partial S \partial P}\\ +\left(\frac{\partial S}{\partial V}\right)_T &=& +\left(\frac{\partial P}{\partial T}\right)_V &=& -\frac{\partial^2 A }{\partial T \partial V}\\ -\left(\frac{\partial S}{\partial P}\right)_T &=& +\left(\frac{\partial V}{\partial T}\right)_P &=& \frac{\partial^2 G }{\partial T \partial P} \end{align}\,\!

where the potentials as functions of their natural thermal and mechanical variables are the internal energy U(S, V), Enthalpy H(S, P), Helmholtz free energy A(T, V) and Gibbs free energy G(T, P). The thermodynamic square can be used as a mnemonic to recall and derive these relations.

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