Kirchhoff’s Law of thermal radiation:
For an arbitrary body emitting and absorbing thermal radiation in thermodynamic equilibrium, the emissivity is equal to the absorptivity.
emissivity ε = absorptivity α
As a result of this law, heat cannot spontaneously flow from cold system to hot system, and the second law of thermodynamics is still satisfied.
In general, both the emissivity, ε, and the absorptivity, α, of a surface depending on the temperature and the radiation wavelength. Kirchhoff’s law of thermal radiation, postulated by German physicist Gustav Robert Kirchhoff, states that a surface’s emissivity and absorptivity at a given temperature and wavelength are equal.
Kirchhoff’s Law of thermal radiation:
For an arbitrary body emitting and absorbing thermal radiation in thermodynamic equilibrium, the emissivity is equal to the absorptivity.
emissivity ε = absorptivity α
This law must also be valid to satisfy the Second Law of Thermodynamics. As was written, all bodies above absolute zero temperature radiate some heat. Two objects radiate heat toward each other. But what if a colder object with high emissivity radiates toward a hotter object with very low emissivity? This seems to violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which states that heat cannot spontaneously flow from cold system to hot system without external work being performed on the system. The paradox is resolved by the fact that each body must be in direct sight of the other to receive radiation from it. Therefore, whenever the cool body is radiating heat to the hot body, the hot body must also be radiating heat to the cool body. Moreover, a hot body will radiate more energy than a cold body. The case of different emissivities is solved by Kirchhoff’s Law of thermal radiation, which states that objects with low emissivity also have low absorptivity. As a result, heat cannot spontaneously flow from cold system to hot system, and the second law is still satisfied.
By definition, a blackbody in thermal equilibrium emissivity of ε = 1.0. Real objects do not radiate as much heat as a perfect black body, and they radiate less heat than a black body and therefore are called gray bodies. The Stefan-Boltzmann law must include emissivity to consider that real objects are gray bodies. Quantitatively, emissivity is the ratio of the thermal radiation from a surface to the radiation from an ideal black surface at the same temperature as given by the Stefan–Boltzmann law. Emissivity is simply a factor by which we multiply the black body heat transfer to consider that the black body is the ideal case.
The surface of a blackbody emits thermal radiation at the rate of approximately 448 watts per square meter at room temperature (25 °C, 298.15 K). Real objects with emissivities less than 1.0 (e.g., copper wire) emit radiation at correspondingly lower rates (e.g., 448 x 0.03 = 13.4 W/m2). Emissivity plays an important role in heat transfer problems. For example, solar heat collectors incorporate selective surfaces with very low emissivities. These collectors waste very little solar energy through the emission of thermal radiation.
