The Entropy Crisis

Intends to prove that the "energy crisis" is an entropy crisis. This book uses examples from daily experiences to introduce the concept of entropy. It shows that the entropy increase due to irreversible transformations simultaneously determines the level of fresh energy supplies of our society and the damage that it causes to the environment.

Within the context of the ecological crisis of the twenty-first century, the book integrates Marxism and systems theory to reveal finance capital and the ‘war on terror’ as complementary responses of a capitalism reduced to parasitising upon symptoms of chaos.

Articles: configurational entropy approach to the kinetics of glasses; entropy theory and glass transition: a test by Monte Carlo simulation; entropy and fragility in supercooling liquids; entropy crises in glasses and random heteropolymers; Adams-Gibbs formulation of enthalpy relaxation near the glass transition; evidence for glass and spin-glass phase transitions from the dynamic susceptibility; entropy, free volume, and cooperative relaxation; and confirmational entropy contributions to the glass temperature of blends of miscible polymers. Charts, tables and graphs.

Metastable Liquids provides a comprehensive treatment of the properties of liquids under conditions where the stable state is a vapor, a solid, or a liquid mixture of different composition. It examines the fundamental principles that govern the equilibrium properties, stability, relaxation mechanisms, and relaxation rates of metastable liquids. Building on the interplay of kinetics and thermodynamics that determines the thermophysical properties and structural relaxation of metastable liquids, it offers an in-depth treatment of thermodynamic stability theory, the statistical mechanics of metastability, nucleation, spinodal decomposition, supercooled liquids, and the glass transition. Both traditional topics--such as stability theory--and modern developments--including modern theories of nucleation and the properties of supercooled and glassy water--are treated in detail. An introductory chapter illustrates, with numerous examples, the importance and ubiquity of metastable liquids. Examples include the ascent of sap in plants, the strategies adopted by many living organisms to survive prolonged exposure to sub-freezing conditions, the behavior of proteins at low temperatures, metastability in mineral inclusions, ozone depletion, the preservation and storage of labile biochemicals, and the prevention of natural gas clathrate hydrate formation. All mathematical symbols are defined in the text and key equations are clearly explained. More complex mathematical explanations are available in the appendixes.

Exploring important theories for understanding freezing and the liquid-glass transition, this book is useful for graduate students and researchers in soft-condensed matter physics, chemical physics and materials science. It details recent ideas and key developments, providing an up-to-date view of current understanding. The standard tools of statistical physics for the dense liquid state are covered. The freezing transition is described from the classical density functional approach. Classical nucleation theory as well as applications of density functional methods for nucleation of crystals from the melt are discussed, and compared to results from computer simulation of simple systems. Discussions of supercooled liquids form a major part of the book. Theories of slow dynamics and the dynamical heterogeneities of the glassy state are presented, as well as nonequilibrium dynamics and thermodynamic phase transitions at deep supercooling. Mathematical treatments are given in full detail so readers can learn the basic techniques.

A glass is disordered material like a viscous liquid and behaves mechanically like a solid. A glass is normally formed by supercooling the viscous liquid fast enough to avoid crystallization, and the liquid-glass transition occurs in diverse manners depending on the materials, their history, and the supercooling processes, among other factors. The glass transition in colloids, molecular systems, and polymers is studied worldwide. This book presents a unified theory of the liquid-glass transition on the basis of the two band model from statistical quantum field theory associated with the temperature Green’s function method. It is firmly original in its approach and will be of interest to researchers and students specializing in the glass transition across the physical sciences. Examines key theoretical problems of the liquid-glass transition and related phenomena Clarifies the mechanism and the framework of the liquid-glass transition

The scope of J.K. Rao's book has been largely guided by the author's own experiences in teaching and research. The book is chiefly concerned with inorganic glasses but some examples are drawn from polymer and organic glasses for illustration.