Axiomatic Treatment of Chemical Reaction Systems

Abstract

To represent a chemical system, a kinetic model must possess certain qualitative characteristics (such as convergence to an equilibrium point, decrease of entropy, etc.). The nature and interdependence of these characteristics are examined. An axiomatic system is presented in which some of these characteristics appear as axioms and others as derived theorems. The convergence to equilibrium points leads to a discussion of Liapounov functions. The relation of these functions to the thermodynamic functionsentropy and Gibbs free energy are discussed.