Statistical Thermodynamics Z. Suo Electric potential Electric charge. The net electric charge in the world is constant. If electric charge increases in one place, electric charge must decrease by the same amount somewhere else. Every electron has the same charge. Every proton has the same charge, which has the same amount as, but an opposite sign to, that of each electron. The charge of each proton is called the elementary charge. A system usually contains electrons and protons, so that the total charge in the system is the elementary charge times the algebraic sum of the number of protons and electrons in the system. For example, a water molecule has 10 electrons and 10 protons, so that the molecule is neutral. A glass of wine has a large number of electrons and protons. A large system is usually nearly neutral: the difference in the number of electrons and the number of protons is much smaller than the number of electrons. Thus, to obtain the net charge of a large system, counting the two large numbers and then finding their difference is usually a bad method. There are number of more effective methods to measure charge on a system, as described in textbooks of electromagnetism. Electric charge is commonly reported in two units. The first unit is just the number; for example, if a drop of oil picks up 3 electrons, you say that the charge of the drop is − 3 . The second unit is called Coulomb. Here is the conversion factor of the two units: the charge of a proton is 1.60 × 10−19 Coulomb. Thus, the charge on the drop of oil is − 4.80 × 10−19 Coulomb. Movements of charged particles. We distinguish two kinds of movements of charged particles: • Conduction: charged particles move over macroscopic distances. Examples include electrons moving in space, electrons moving in a metal line, ions moving in an electrolyte, and holes moving in a semiconductor. February 24, 2007 1 http://imechanica.org/node/914 Statistical Thermodynamics • Z. Suo Polarization: charged particles move relative to each other by a small amount, and is restrained by inter-particle forces. Examples include a small distortion of the electron cloud of an atom, a small change in distance between a positive ion and a negative ion in a dielectric. Elastic dielectric. All materials contain electrons and protons. In a dielectric, these charged particles form bonds, and move relative to one another by short distances in response to a voltage or a force. That is, all dielectrics are deformable. The notion of a rigid dielectric is as fictitious as that of a rigid body: they are idealizations useful for some purposes, but misleading for others. Work done by a battery and by a weight. The following figure illustrates a system of insulators and conductors, loaded by a field of weights and batteries, of which only one of each is drawn. All batteries are connected to a common ground. We can measure the displacement δl of the weight, and the amount of charge δQ pumped by the battery from the ground to the electrode. There might be other weights dropping or rising and other batteries pumping charge from or to the ground, but the work done by this particular weight is Pδl , and the work done by this particular battery is ΦδQ . If we regard work, displacement and charge as primitive, measurable quantities, the above statements of work define the force P supplied by the weight, and the voltage Φ supplied by the battery. The force is said to be the work conjugate to the displacement, and the voltage the work conjugate to the charge. We will use the word weight as shorthand for all mechanisms (including inertia) that do work through displacements, and the word battery as shorthand for all mechanisms that do work through flows of charge. We will neglect the effects of magnetism and electromagnetic radiation. The unit of electric potential is energy/charge. When the unit of charge is Coulomb, and the unit of energy is Joule, the unit of electric potential is volt. February 24, 2007 2 http://imechanica.org/node/914 Statistical Thermodynamics Z. Suo electrode dielectric δQ Φ ground P δl Electromechanical coupling. Now imagine that the weight and battery are adjustable, so that the force P and the voltage Φ can vary. When the displacement is held constant, a change in the charge may cause the force to change. When the charge is held constant, a change in the displacement may cause the voltage to change. These electromechanical coupling effects are universal to all dielectrics, because all dielectrics have electrons and protons, and the charged particles can move relative to one another. Conservative system. The two electromechanical coupling effects are linked for conservative systems. A conservative system is one for which, under isothermal conditions, the work done by the weight and the battery is fully stored as the Helmholtz free energy of the system. That is, associated with small changes δl and δQ , the free energy of the system, F, changes by δF = Pδl + ΦδQ . February 24, 2007 3 http://imechanica.org/node/914 Statistical Thermodynamics Z. Suo To this equation we should add the work done by all other weights and batteries. For simplicity, however, here we assume that only one weight and one battery do work. This may be achieved by removing all other weights and batteries, and making sure that every other part in the system other than the particular electrode is either grounded or charge neutral. The temperature is held constant, and we do not list it as a variable. These idealizations ensure that the free energy of the system is a function of two variables, F (l , Q ) . We only need to measure the difference in F, l and Q between the current state and a reference state. For the conservative system, the force and the voltage are partial derivatives: P= ∂F (l , Q ) , ∂l Φ= ∂F (l , Q ) . ∂Q Associated with small changes δl and δQ , the force and the voltage change by δP = ∂ 2 F (l , Q ) ∂ 2 F (l , Q ) δ δQ , + l ∂l∂Q ∂l 2 δΦ = ∂ 2 F (l , Q ) ∂ 2 F (l , Q ) δl + δQ . ∂l∂Q ∂Q 2 We may call ∂ 2 F (l , Q ) / ∂l 2 the mechanical tangent stiffness of the system, and ∂ 2 F (l , Q ) / ∂Q 2 the electrical tangent stiffness of the system. The two electromechanical coupling effects are both characterized by the same cross derivative, namely, ∂P(l , Q ) ∂ 2 F (l , Q ) ∂Φ(l , Q ) = = . ∂Q ∂l∂Q ∂l Consequently, for a conservative system, the two electromechanical coupling effects reciprocate. Experimental determination of electric potential. Electric potential can be determined February 24, 2007 4 http://imechanica.org/node/914 Statistical Thermodynamics Z. Suo by measurable quantities. For example, using an elastic dielectric, an adjustable weight and an adjustable battery, we can measuring P for various l and Q. That is, by experimental measurement, we can determine the function P (l , Q ) . We then adjust the electric potential such that the electric charge on the electrode is held constant, so that δΦ = ∂P(l , Q ) δl . ∂l This will determine the electric potential of the battery up to an additive constant. Lagendre transformation. Define Π = F (l , Q ) − ΦQ . Its differential is dΠ = Pdl − QdΦ , so that Π is a function of (l , Φ ) , and P= ∂Π (l , Φ ) , ∂l Q=− ∂Π (l , Φ ) . ∂Φ Parallel-plate capacitor. As an illustration, consider the parallel-plate capacitor, loaded by both the voltage and the weight. The two electrodes are separated by a vacuum. The separation between the two electrodes l may vary, but the area of either electrode remains to be A. The battery maintains a charge + Q on one electrode and a charge − Q on the other electrode. The charges cause the two plates to attract each other, and the attraction is balanced by the weight. Let us say that we have done the experiment, or a more practical version of the experiment, and found that that the charge on either electrode is linear in the electric potential: Φ Q = ε0 . A l February 24, 2007 5 http://imechanica.org/node/914 Statistical Thermodynamics Z. Suo The ε 0 is a constant characteristic of the vacuum known as the permittivity of vacuum. Our experiment shows that ε 0 = 8.85 × 10−12 F / m if we use meter for length, volt for electric potential and Coulomb for charge. Here F stands for Faraday, a derived the unit consistent with the above expression. Recall that Φ(Q, l ) = ∂F (Q, l ) / ∂Q . In this case, vacuum may be taken to have zero entropy, and the Helmholtz function is identical to the internal energy. Integrating in Q gives lQ 2 . F (l , Q ) = 2ε 0 A Recall that P (Q, l ) = ∂F (Q, l ) / ∂l . The weight needed to balance the electric attraction of the two plates is P(Q, l ) = Q2 . 2 Aε 0 A Φ −Q l +Q P February 24, 2007 6 http://imechanica.org/node/914