In: Biology
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?
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 - T
S,
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.