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The Chemical Educator
ISSN: 1430-4171 (electronic version)
Abstract Volume 7
Issue 3 (2002) pp 127-131
Carnot Cycle Revisited
Enrique Peacock-López
Department of Chemistry, Williams College, Williamstown, MA 02671
Received January 14, 2002. Accepted March 15, 2002
Published online: 10 May 2002
Abstract. Sadi Carnot
stated that the efficiency of a reversible Carnot cycle is independent
of the properties of the material used to run the cycle. Using this statement,
all textbook discussions of the Carnot cycle use an ideal gas. Here, in
contrast, we consider, in the spirit of the Caratheodory approach, a general
analysis centered on the existence of an integrating factor that transforms
an inexact differential into an exact differential. Also we derive a general
relation between temperature and volume along an adiabatic path. Using
these two results, we obtain the efficiency of the Carnot cycle, h
= 1 – TC/TH,for any equation of state.
Key Words: In the Classroom; physical chemistry; thermodynamics; Carnot
(*) Corresponding author. (E-mail: epeacock@tonatiuh.williams.edu)
Article in PDF format (226 KB) HTML format
Issue date: June 7, 2002
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