Thermodynamics,a good theory for the study of electrochemistry in non-isothermal systems. A specific application: thermal diffusion

We present here a short survey on general non-equilibrium thermodynamics when the external forces are especially of electrostatical nature. Such a development provides a very well-adapted frame to analyse many irreversible processes as thermal diffusion in ionic media. This phenomena, so-called Soret effect in fluid mixtures, has greatly been studied by various experimental methods. Among these, the electrochemical ones give valuable information on quantities such as entropies and heats of transfer.