That’s the point: what people use is normal equilibrium or close-to-equilibrium thermodynamics. Even in situations that seem far out of the scope of equilibrium thermodynamics and where one would normally expect Prigogine physics to be the perfect candidate—one example being CVD or VLS growth of various nanotubes/nanowires/etc. - I have never seen the latter applied. Everybody just goes with good old (near-)equilibrium chemical thermodynamics. Now this might be just a manifestation of Maslow’s hammer, and Prigogine physics is hard, but for what it’s worth, here’s one example of a big hole that should be covered by the theory but is, in fact, not.
People do use thermodynamics. Are you in a position to say whether Priogine’s work is ever relevant to professional chemical engineers?
That’s the point: what people use is normal equilibrium or close-to-equilibrium thermodynamics. Even in situations that seem far out of the scope of equilibrium thermodynamics and where one would normally expect Prigogine physics to be the perfect candidate—one example being CVD or VLS growth of various nanotubes/nanowires/etc. - I have never seen the latter applied. Everybody just goes with good old (near-)equilibrium chemical thermodynamics. Now this might be just a manifestation of Maslow’s hammer, and Prigogine physics is hard, but for what it’s worth, here’s one example of a big hole that should be covered by the theory but is, in fact, not.