HSC Together Year 11 Chemistry: Explaining Spontaneous Reactions

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Explaining Spontaneous Reactions

Spontaneous or Non-Spontaneous?

This post will introduce Gibbs free energy, the concept of spontaneity and also how to determine the spontaneity of a reaction for Prelim Chemistry, specifically explaining spontaneous reactions.

Topic: Entropy and Gibbs Free Energy

  • Explain reaction spontaneity using terminology, including:
    • Gibbs free energy
    • Enthalpy
    • Entropy
    • Solve problems using standard references and ΔG∘=ΔH∘−TΔS∘ (Gibbs free energy formula) to classify reactions as spontaneous or nonspontaneous

 

Gibbs Free Energy

Gibbs free energy is an equation that combines enthalpy and entropy to describe the spontaneity of a reaction. Spontaneous reactions occur without any input into the reaction, non-spontaneous reactions need input such as extra energy. This video introduces Gibbs free energy.

 

Determining if a Reaction is Spontaneous

So, now that we know that spontaneity can be described with that equation, how does changing the values of enthalpy and entropy affect the spontaneity? This video briefly covers entropy and Gibbs free energy again.

 

This video shows the effect of entropy and enthalpy on the spontaneity of a reaction.

 

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