[University Molecular/Statistical Thermodynamics] Refrigeration Spontaneity and 1st Law HomeworkHelp

A refrigerator functions by extracting energy as heat from a cold system and adding heat to a hot system. Suppose that 1J of heat is extracted from a bath of liquid helium that is at a temperature Tc=4.2K. Suppose that the hot system is a bath of liquid nitrogen at Th=77.3K. How much heat must be added to the nitrogen bath to make this a spontaneous process? How can the first law of thermodynamics be satisfied in this transfer?

I know that refrigeration requires work to be put in because it goes against the temperature gradient. I also know that for a process to be spontaneous the change in the Gibbs Pot'l needs to be negative. Unfortunately, we haven't covered refrigeration in class, and it isn't covered in our textbook, so I'm at a total loss of what to do.

Submitted January 22, 2015 at 03:14AM by Hensroth http://ift.tt/1EsRBIp HomeworkHelp