In 1912 Nernst stated the law thus: 'It is impossible for any procedure to lead to the isotherm T = 0 in a finite number of steps.' Īn alternative version of the third law of thermodynamics was enunciated by Gilbert N. This is because a system at zero temperature exists in its ground state, so that its entropy is determined only by the degeneracy of the ground state. The third law of thermodynamics states that the entropy of a system at absolute zero is a well-defined constant. The third law was developed by chemist Walther Nernst during the years 1906 to 1912 and is therefore often referred to as the Nernst heat theorem, or sometimes the Nernst-Simon heat theorem to include the contribution of Nernst's doctoral student Francis Simon. It is impossible for any process, no matter how idealized, to reduce the entropy of a system to its absolute-zero value in a finite number of operations. Here a condensed system refers to liquids and solids.Ī classical formulation by Nernst (actually a consequence of the Third Law) is: The entropy change associated with any condensed system undergoing a reversible isothermal process approaches zero as the temperature at which it is performed approaches 0 K. The Nernst statement of the third law of thermodynamics concerns thermodynamic processes at a fixed, low temperature: The entropy is essentially a state-function meaning the inherent value of different atoms, molecules, and other configurations of particles including subatomic or atomic material is defined by entropy, which can be discovered near 0 K. The constant value is called the residual entropy of the system. If the system does not have a well-defined order (if its order is glassy, for example), then there may remain some finite entropy as the system is brought to very low temperatures, either because the system becomes locked into a configuration with non-minimal energy or because the minimum energy state is non-unique. In such a case, the entropy at absolute zero will be exactly zero. At absolute zero (zero kelvins) the system must be in a state with the minimum possible energy.Įntropy is related to the number of accessible microstates, and there is typically one unique state (called the ground state) with minimum energy. This constant value cannot depend on any other parameters characterizing the system, such as pressure or applied magnetic field. The third law of thermodynamics states that the entropy of a closed system at thermodynamic equilibrium approaches a constant value when its temperature approaches absolute zero.

Absolute entropy vs tempurature