Chemistry versus physics: chemical reactions near critical points

Chemical reactions at high pressures are widely used in modern technology (supercritical extraction is an example). On the other hand, critical phenomena is the more advanced field in statistical mechanics. There are thousands of theoretical and experimental articles published by physicists, chemists, biologists, chemical engineers and material scientists, but, to our knowledge, there are no books which link these two phenomena together. This book sums up the results of 222 published articles, both theoretical and experimental, which will be of great benefit to students and all researchers working in this field.

1. Criticality and chemistry. 1.1. Critical phenomena. 1.2. Chemical reactions. 1.3. Analogy between critical phenomena and the instability of chemical reactions -- 2. Effect of criticality on chemical reaction. 2.1. The effect of pressure on the equilibrium constant and rate of reaction. 2.2. Effect of phase transformations on chemistry. 2.3. Critical slowing-down of chemical reactions. 2.4. Hydrodynamic equations of reactive binary mixture : piston effect. 2.5. Critical anomalies of chemical equilibria. 2.6. Experiment -- 3. Effect of chemistry on critical phenomena. 3.1. Change of critical parameters due to a chemical reaction. 3.2. Modification of the critical indices. 3.3. Singularity in the degree of dissociation near a critical point. 3.4. Isotope exchange reaction in near-critical systems. 3.5. Singularities of transport coefficients in reactive systems -- 4. Phase separation in reactive systems. 4.1. Multiple solutions of the law of mass action. 4.2. Phase equilibrium in reactive binary mixtures quenched into a metastable state. 4.3. Phase equilibrium in reactive mixtures quenched into an unstable state. 4.4. Thermodynamics of a three-component plasma with a dissociative …