This is an introduction to statistical mechanics, intended to be used either in an undergraduate physical chemistry course or by beginning graduate students with little undergraduate background in the subject. It assumes familiarity with thermodynamics, chemical kinetics, the kinetic theory of gases, quantum mechanics and spectroscopy, at the level at which these subjects are normally treated in undergraduate physical chemistry. Highly illustrated with numerous exercises and worked solutions, it provides a concise, up-to-date treatise of statistical mechanics and is ideally suited to use in one semester courses.

Tracing the history of thought on the molecular origins of surface pheomena, this volume offers a critical and detailed examination and assessment of modern theories. The opening chapters survey the earliest efforts to recapture these phenomena by using crude mechanical models of liquids as well as subsequent quasi-thermodynamic methods. A discussion of statistical mechanics leads to the application of results in mean-field approximation to some tractable but artificial model systems. More realistic models are portrayed both by computer simulation and by approximations of the precise statistical equations. Emphasis throughout the text is consistently placed on the liquid-gas surface, with a focus on liquid-liquid surfaces in the final two chapters. Unabridged republication of the edition published by Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1989. Preface. Principal symbols. Appendixes. Name Index. Subject Index.

This is an introduction to statistical mechanics, intended to be used either in an undergraduate physical chemistry course or by beginning graduate students with little undergraduate background in the subject. It assumes familiarity with thermodynamics, chemical kinetics, the kinetic theory of gases, quantum mechanics and spectroscopy, at the level at which these subjects are normally treated in undergraduate physical chemistry. Highly illustrated with numerous exercises and worked solutions, it provides a concise, up-to-date treatise of statistical mechanics and is ideally suited to use in one semester courses.