Driving force for solidification

• Consider a liquid transforming to a solid at equilibrium temperature Tm

• No free work can be transferred if the remaining liquid solidifies, i.e. ?G=0

• ?G=?H-T?S=0 [2nd law of thermodynamics]

• Thus ?H=T?S and ?S=?H/Tm

• ?H is the latent heat of melting

• Consider now cooling to a lower temperature. There is now a driving force for solidification

Previous slide

Next slide

Back to first slide

View graphic version