Title: virial coefficients
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - virial coefficients
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.V06625
Status: current

Definition
Coefficients (\(B\rm{,}C\rm{,}\,...\)) in the virial equation of state for a real gas \(p\ V_{\rm{m}}=R\ T\ (1+\frac{B}{V_{\rm{m}}}+\frac{C}{V_{\rm{m}}^{2}}+\,...)\) where \(p\) is the pressure, \(V_{\rm{m}}\) the molar volume, \(R\) the gas constant and \(T\) the thermodynamic temperature.

Related Terms
- gas constant: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/G02579
- thermodynamic temperature: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/T06321

Source
- Green Book, 2nd ed., p. 49 (https://goldbook.iupac.org/files/pdf/green_book_2ed.pdf)

Related Reference
- Purple Book, 1st ed., p. 58 (http://old.iupac.org/publications/books/author/metanomski.html)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/V06625/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/V06625/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/V06625/xml

Citation: Citation: 'virial coefficients' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.V06625
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Accessed: 2026-07-23T04:28:22+00:00