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Information on the course on Físico-Química e Termodinâmica dos Sólidos, SFI5769, 2026-1

Semester: 2026-1
Responsable: Prof. Philippe W. Courteille, philippe.courteille@ifsc.usp.br
Start and end of classes: 10.3.2026 to 25.6.2026
Queries: via e-mail
Time and location of classes:Mondays and Wednesdays from 10h00 to 12h00 in room 18 of bloco F2 or via Google meet
Dates of the seminar: 23.6.2026
Holidays: 30.3.-4.4.2026 (semana santa), 20.-21.4. (Tiradentes), 1.-2.5. (dia do trabalho), 4.-6.6. (corpus Cristi),
Language: Portuguese, French, German or English (to be agreed with the students)
Workload:
Theory 4 per week
Practice3 per weak
Studies 8 per weak
Duration15 weaks
Total 225 hours
Content:

This is a graduate course! The 'raison d'être' of graduate courses shall be to bring the student to the forefront of current research activities in the the lecturer's area of expertise. For the present course this means that the student is supposed to be familiar with the basics of electromagnetism and its formalism. It is up to the student who realizes that he has gaps of knowledge to fill them until being able to benefit from the lectures. Possible topics of this lecture include:

1. Equilibrium thermodynamics
2. State function
3. First law and the conservation of energy
4. Thermal capacity and entropy (second Law)
5. Gibbs and Helmholtz energy
6. Maxwell relation
7. Third law of thermodynamics
8. Chemical potential
9. Phase and equilibrium diagram
10. Chemical equilibrium
11. Statistical thermodynamics
12. Partition and state function
13. Translational, rotational, and vibrational quantization laws
14. Molar thermal capacity in solids
15. Quantum statistics (Bose-Einstein, Fermi-Dirac and Boltzmann distribution)
16. Electronic structure in solids
17. Structure and physical properties of systems
18. Crystalline structure
19. Defects in solids
20. Mass and charge transport
21. Thermal conduction
22. Capillarity effects
23. Electrochemistry

Evaluation/approvation:

Written tests will be applied, homeworks will be given, and a seminar will be organized. The seminar will include a written monograph and an oral presentation. The seminar grade counts 1/2 of the final grade. The presentation of the exercises and the participation in the subsequent discussions will be evaluated and counts for 1/2 in the final grade.


Recomended literature: Philippe W. Courteille, Apostila do Curso: Thermodynamics
Philippe W. Courteille, Apostila do Curso: Quantum mechanics
R.T. DeHoff, Thermodynamics in materials science, Boca Raton: CRC/Taylor Francis (2006)
C. Kittel, Introduction to solid state physics, 8th ed. Hoboken, NY: Wiley (2005)
H.B. Callen, Thermodynamics, 2nd ed. New York: Wiley (1985)
A.R. West, Basic solid state chemistry, 2nd ed. Chichester: Wiley (2006)
D. Mc Quarry, Statistical thermodynamics, New York: Harper & Row (1973) Harper's chemistry series



Exercises

To successfully absolve this course, the student must study the material indicated in the 'Topic' column of the table below and made available in the courses' script 'Thermodynamics' until the date indicated in bold letters in the table below. Also, he must solve the exercises indicated in blue color and be prepared to present it fluently. The chapters marked by 'QM' refer to the script 'Quantum mechanics'.

Date of presentationChapter of scriptExerciseTopic
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
10.03.2026 1.1.1 - 1.1.3 Temperature, kinetic theory, heat and work
12.03.2026 1.2.1 - 1.2.3 Thermodynamic state functions, process variables, potentials, and laws, entropy, Legendre transform, coefficient relations, Maxwell relations



Seminar

Date of presentationSpeakerTopic
-------------------------------------------------
Evaluation criteria for the seminar:
  Structure: motivation and contextualization, introduction and outline of the organization of the presentation, conclusion
  Content: choice of topics, logical organization and didactics of argumentation, preparation to answer questions and to survive a discussion
  Didactics: abundant use of examples and schemes, interpretation and discussion of results, implication of the audience, capacity of raising curiosity in the audience
  Presentation:clarity and conciseness, organization of the talk or the blackboard, fluency of the presentation
The active participation of every student in discussions following the presentations of other students will also be evaluated!
Link to the seminar booklet of the course on 'Thermodynamics'

Suggestions for seminar topics:Bose-Einstein condensation,
Ultracold Fermi-gases,
Dicke phase transitions,
The Ising model,
Heat engines,
Non-equilibrium thermodynamics,
Brownian motion,
The Debye model,
The electron gas model.