From Disorder to Order

View From Disorder to Order

Presenter: Gerhard Ertl

Published: July 2014

Age: 18-22 and upwards

Views: 1197 views

Tags: thermodynamics;entropy;order;disorder

Type: Lectures

Source/institution: Lindau-Nobel


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Our experience suggests that a system will usually show the tendency to undergo spontaneously a transition from the state of order into disorder.  Quite in contrast, our world developed from an initial state of great disorder into another one where even the highest degree of order is observed in living organisms.  The basic mechanisms governing these unexpected transformations are phase transitions (self assembly) in closed systems attempting to attain thermal equilibrium and self-organization in open systems far from equilibrium.  Chemical processes occurring at solid surfaces will serve as examples to illustrate the underlying principles.

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