Chemical potential

Classical thermodynamics

Definition:

$\mu =\left.{\frac {\partial G}{\partial N}}\right\vert _{T,p}$

where $G$ is the Gibbs energy function, leading to

$\mu ={\frac {A}{Nk_{B}T}}+{\frac {pV}{Nk_{B}T}}$

where $A$ is the Helmholtz energy function, $k_{B}$ is the Boltzmann constant, $p$ is the pressure, $T$ is the temperature and $V$ is the volume.

Statistical mechanics

The chemical potential is the derivative of the Helmholtz energy function with respect to the number of particles

$\mu =\left.{\frac {\partial A}{\partial N}}\right\vert _{T,V}={\frac {\partial (-k_{B}T\ln Z_{N})}{\partial N}}=-{\frac {3}{2}}k_{B}T\ln \left({\frac {2\pi mk_{B}T}{h^{2}}}\right)+{\frac {\partial \ln Q_{N}}{\partial N}}$

where $Z_{N}$ is the partition function for a fluid of $N$ identical particles

$Z_{N}=\left({\frac {2\pi mk_{B}T}{h^{2}}}\right)^{3N/2}Q_{N}$

and $Q_{N}$ is the configurational integral

$Q_{N}={\frac {1}{N!}}\int ...\int \exp(-U_{N}/k_{B}T)dr_{1}...dr_{N}$

See also

• Ideal gas: Chemical potential

References

1. T. A. Kaplan "The Chemical Potential", Journal of Statistical Physics 122 pp. 1237-1260 (2006)