Question

Why does an exergonic reaction mean that the products have lower free energy than the reactants, rather than the other way around, where the reactants have lower free energy than the products? Because doesn't an exergonic reaction mean that deltaG is negative?

Answer 1

An exergonic reaction is a chemical reaction where the change in the free energy is negative (there is a net release of free energy),indicating a spontaneous reaction. For processes that take place under constant pressure and temperature conditions, the Gibbs free energy is used whereas the Helmholtz energy is used for processes that take place under constant volume and temperature conditions.

Symbolically, the release of free energy, G, in an exergonic reaction (at constant pressure and temperature) is denoted as

Although exergonic reactions are said to occur spontaneously, this does not imply that the reaction will take place at an observable rate. For instance, the disproportionation of hydrogen peroxide is very slow in the absence of a suitable catalyst. It has been suggested thateager would be a more intuitive term in this context.

More generally, the terms exergonic and endergonic relate to the free energy change in any process, not just chemical reactions. An example of an exergonic reaction is cellular respiration.

The terms exothermic and endothermic relate to the overall exchange of heat during a process.

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