Structure of the analytical theories of heat

Abstract

We examine the analytical theories of heat developed by Laplace, Poisson and Carnot, and the thermodynamic theories based on the energy conservation and the principle of the increase of entropy formulated by Clausius. We present an analysis of the approaches developed by Maxwell, Gibbs, Planck, Duhem, Nernst, and De Donder as well as the irreversible thermodynamics of Prigogine, and the theory of liquid gas transition of van der Waals. We show that the thermodynamic potentials dominated the development of the theory of thermodynamics since Gibbs. They were introduced by Massieu under the name of characteristic functions and were demonstrated by Gibbs to have the suitable properties to characterize equilibrium of systems with variable composition, and to hold the convexity properties. We also show that the thermodynamic potentials were the relevant quantity in the Duhem approach to thermodynamics and to thermochemistry