Question

A reaction has a very negative change in free energy. Will the reaction proceed as written? Why/why not? If so what would stop the reaction from proceeding / if not what would cause it to proceed?

Answer 1

Ans.

The measure of the amount of usable energy or the energy that can do work, in a system is called as the Gibbs free energy (G) of that system.By knowing the value of change in Gibbs free energy (G) during a reaction,we can easily know about the reaction's energetics and spontaneity,that is whether it can happen without added energy.The change in Gibbs free energy is given by the equation:

G = H - TS, where H is the change in enthalpy of the system,S is the change entropy of the system and T is the temperature.

Now, A negative H implies that heat is released from reactants to products and a positive H means heat is absorbed

Now a reaction with very negative free energy(G) will have negative H also,which means such reactions release energy and thus it can proceed without any addition of energy and the reaction will be spontaneous.A negative G means that the reactants have more free energy than that of the products and the reaction is spontaneous and can proceed without added energy.

Thus,A reaction that has a very negative change in free energy will proceed as it is.