Abstract
The thermodynamic laws, which were defined in Chap. 1, apply to closed systems that do not exchange matter with the surrounding medium and that reach a true thermodynamic equilibrium. Now, the fact that classical thermodynamics is based on the concepts of reversible processes and real equilibrium states leads to serious limitations in the macroscopic description of a number of physico-chemical processes. In classical thermodynamics at equilibrium it is assumed that changes take place in ideal systems in the absence of friction. In reality, a state of equilibrium is reached only under exceptional circumstances; real phenomena involve friction, as a function of time. In order to apply the laws of classical thermodynamics, the phenomenon of friction is normally considered to have an infinitesimally small rate and that any losses as a result are negligible.
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Yon-Kahn, J., Hervé, G. (2009). Living Beings, Open Systems. In: Molecular and Cellular Enzymology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-01228-0_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-01228-0_4
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