Irreversible/Reversible Processes

[Kate_Santoso_4F]

Can someone please explain why isothermal, reversible processes do more work than their irreversible counterpart?

[GavinAleshire1L]

Isothermal reversible processes assume total efficiency, so they're idealized processes. Because no energy is lost in this process maximum work is completed, as opposed to an irreversible process where some energy would be lost in the form of heat.

[Arshiya]

In addition, in an isothermal irreversible reaction, the pressure is constant. Therefore, the amount of work done is -Pex*V. Because it is isothermal, no heat is lost or gained. In an isothermal reversible reaction, the pressure and volume are increasing or decreasing in small incremental steps. Because all these small values are taken into account, the work done for this system is the maximum work possible. In order to find the work for this system we use -nRTln(Vf/Vi).