Quantum Thermodynamics: Non-equilibrium 3D Description of an Unbounded System at an Atomistic Level

Year 2010, Volume: 13 Issue: 1, 23 - 33, 12.03.2010

Adriano Sciacovelli C. Smith Michael Von Spakovsky Vittorio Verda

Abstract

Quantum thermodynamics (QT) provides a general framework for the description of non-equilibrium phenomena at any level, particularly the atomistic one. This theory and its dynamical postulate are used here to extend the work reported in previous papers of modeling the storage of hydrogen in an isolated system, by extending the modeling to 3D. The system is prepared in a state with the hydrogen molecules initially far from stable equilibrium after which the system is allowed to relax (evolve) to a state of stable equilibrium. The so-called energy eigenvalue problem, which entails a many-body problem that for dilute and moderately dense gases can be solved using virial expansion theory, is used to determine the energy eigenvalues and eigenstates of the system. This information is then used in the nonlinear Beretta equation of motion of QT to determine the evolution of the thermodynamic state of the system as well as the spatial distributions of the hydrogen molecules in time. The results of our simulations provide a quantification of the entropy generated due to irreversibilities at an atomistic level and show in detail the trajectory of the state of the system as the hydrogen molecules, which are initially arranged to be far from the carbon nanotube, spread out in the system and eventually become more concentrated near the carbon atoms which make up the nanotube.

Keywords

quantum thermodynamics, non-equilibrium, entropy generation, nanoscale systems, atomistic modeling