ABSTRACT
Thermodynamics is one of the branches of physics that has wide application in biotechnology. It assesses the influence of temperature on different reactions involving biomolecules of pharmacological interest, either native or modified by different treatments, as well as their structure. Moreover, knowledge of kinetic and thermodynamic parameters is useful, not only for investigating the reaction mechanism and behaviour but also for successfully designing reactors and other equipment used in the pharmaceutical industry. This chapter addresses aspects related to the thermodynamic properties of biomolecules, with emphasis on biotechnological processes, thus facilitating their understanding from the experimental procedures to the interpretation of estimated parameters. The Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics addresses the concept of thermal equilibrium based on the direction of heat transfer. When two bodies at different temperatures come into contact, heat is spontaneously transferred from the hotter to the colder, until both achieve thermal equilibriu.
