Two absolutely critical properties of gas are
its temperature and pressure. These determine the liquifying
conditions of that gas. Joule and Thompson devised this experiment
that shows how the temperature varies with the pressure.
They simply let a gas expand from a high pressure
environment to a low pressure environment in an adiabatic container.
This is particular clever, since it imposes the constraint of
constant enthalpy.
| (net work = wnet)
wnet = p1V1 - p2V2
(work done on gas)
ΔU = U2 - U1
= q + wnet = wnet
\ U2
- U1 = p1V1 - p2V2
Since H = U + pV
\ H2 =
H1
\ constant enthalpy |
The Joule-Thompson coefficient is
If m is positive then the gas cools on expansion,
and if its negative it heats on expansion. The temperature at
which the sign changes is called the inversion
temperature. Since the gas cools on expansion if
m is positive or heats on expansion if it iss negative, we can
assume that if m = 0, then the temperature will remain unchanged
on expansion.
If you look at a high gas pressure cylinder and
watch it release the gas, you'll notice it cools (assuming
m is positive), sometimes sufficiently so as to condense water
vapour on the cylinder.
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