TheInfoList

Chemical energy is the energy of
chemical substance A chemical substance is a form of matter In classical physics and general chemistry, matter is any substance that has mass and takes up space by having volume. All everyday objects that can be touched are ultimately composed of atoms, which ...
s that is released when they undergo a
chemical reaction A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the chemical transformation of one set of chemical substance A chemical substance is a form of matter In classical physics and general chemistry, matter is any substance that has mass and t ...

and transform into other substances. Some examples of storage media of chemical energy include batteries, Schmidt-Rohr, K. (2018). "How Batteries Store and Release Energy: Explaining Basic Electrochemistry", ''J. Chem. Educ.'' 95: 1801-1810. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.8b00479 food, gasoline, and oxygen gas. Schmidt-Rohr, K. (2015). "Why Combustions Are Always Exothermic, Yielding About 418 kJ per Mole of O2", ''J. Chem. Educ.'' 92: 2094-2099. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00333 Breaking and re-making of
chemical bond A chemical bond is a lasting attraction between atom An atom is the smallest unit of ordinary matter In classical physics and general chemistry, matter is any substance that has mass and takes up space by having volume. All everyda ...
s involves
energy In physics Physics is the that studies , its , its and behavior through , and the related entities of and . "Physical science is that department of knowledge which relates to the order of nature, or, in other words, to the regula ...

, which may be either absorbed by or evolved from a chemical system. Energy that can be released or absorbed because of a reaction between chemical substances is equal to the difference between the energy content of the products and the reactants, if the initial and final temperature is the same. This change in energy can be estimated from the
bond energies In chemistry, bond energy (''BE''), also called the mean bond enthalpy or average bond enthalpy is the measure of bond strength in a chemical bond. IUPAC defines bond energy as the average value of the gas-phase bond-dissociation energy (usually a ...
of the
reactants Image:SulfurReagent.jpg, 200px, Reactants, such as sulfur (''pictured''), are the starting materials that are used in chemical reactions. A reagent is a substance or compound added to a system to cause a chemical reaction, or added to test if a ...
and products. It can also be calculated from $\Delta _$, the
internal energy The internal energy of a thermodynamic system A thermodynamic system is a body of matter In classical physics and general chemistry, matter is any substance that has mass and takes up space by having volume. All everyday objects that ca ...
of formation of the reactant
molecules A molecule is an electrically Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion Image:Leaving Yongsan Station.jpg, 300px, Motion involves a change in position In physics, motion is the phenomenon ...

, and $\Delta _$, the internal energy of formation of the product molecules. The internal energy change of a chemical process is equal to the heat exchanged if it is measured under conditions of constant volume and equal initial and final temperature, as in a closed container such as a
bomb calorimeter A calorimeter is an object used for calorimetry upSnellen direct calorimetry chamber, University of Ottawa. Calorimetry is the science or act of measuring changes in ''state variables'' of a body for the purpose of deriving the heat transf ...

. However, under conditions of constant pressure, as in reactions in vessels open to the atmosphere, the measured heat change is not always equal to the internal energy change, because pressure-volume work also releases or absorbs energy. (The heat change at constant pressure is called the
enthalpy Enthalpy , a property of a thermodynamic system, is the sum of the system's internal energy and the product of its pressure and volume. It is a state function used in many measurements in chemical, biological, and physical systems at a constant p ...

change; in this case the
enthalpy of reaction The standard enthalpy of reaction (denoted \Delta H_^\ominus or \Delta H_^\ominus) is the difference between total reactant and total product enthalpy, enthalpies due to a chemical reaction, from reactants in their standard states to products in the ...
, if initial and final temperatures are equal). A related term is the
heat of combustion The heating value (or energy value or calorific value) of a substance Substance may refer to: * Substance (Jainism), a term in Jain ontology to denote the base or owner of attributes * Chemical substance, a material with a definite chemical composi ...
, which is the energy mostly of the weak double bonds of molecular oxygen released due to a
combustion Combustion, or burning, is a high-temperature exothermic redox chemical reaction between a fuel (the reductant) and an oxidant, usually atmospheric oxygen, that produces oxidized, often gaseous products, in a mixture termed as smoke. Combustion ...
reaction and often applied in the study of
fuel A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy Thermal radiation in visible light can be seen on this hot metalwork. Thermal energy refers to several distinct physical con ...

s. Food is similar to hydrocarbon and carbohydrate fuels, and when it is oxidized to carbon dioxide and water, the energy released is analogous to the heat of combustion (though assessed differently than for a hydrocarbon fuel — see
food energy Food energy is chemical energy Chemical energy is the energy of chemical substance A chemical substance is a form of matter In classical physics and general chemistry, matter is any substance that has mass and takes up space by havin ...
). Chemical potential energy is a form of potential energy related to the structural arrangement of atoms or molecules. This arrangement may be the result of
chemical bond A chemical bond is a lasting attraction between atom An atom is the smallest unit of ordinary matter In classical physics and general chemistry, matter is any substance that has mass and takes up space by having volume. All everyda ...
s within a molecule or interactions between them. Chemical energy of a chemical substance can be transformed to other forms of energy by a
chemical reaction A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the chemical transformation of one set of chemical substance A chemical substance is a form of matter In classical physics and general chemistry, matter is any substance that has mass and t ...

. For example, when a fuel is burned, the chemical energy of molecular oxygen is converted to heat. Green plants transform
solar energy Solar energy is Solar irradiance, radiant light and heat from the Sun that is harnessed using a range of technologies such as solar power to generate electricity, solar thermal energy including solar water heating, and solar architecture. It ...

to chemical energy (mostly of oxygen) through the process of
photosynthesis Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert Conversion or convert may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Conversion (Doctor Who audio), "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ' ...

, and electrical energy can be converted to chemical energy and vice versa through
electrochemical Electrochemistry is the branch of physical chemistry Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic The macroscopic scale is the length scale on which objects or phenomena are large enough to be visible with the naked eye, without magnifying ...
reactions. The similar term
chemical potential In thermodynamics Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, Work (thermodynamics), work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, radiation, and physical properties of matter. The behavior of these quantities is governed ...

is used to indicate the potential of a substance to undergo a change of configuration, be it in the form of a chemical reaction, spatial transport, particle exchange with a reservoir, etc. It is ''not'' a form of
potential energy In physics, potential energy is the energy In , energy is the that must be to a or to perform on the body, or to it. Energy is a ; the law of states that energy can be in form, but not created or destroyed. The unit of measure ...

itself, but is more closely related to free energy. The confusion in terminology arises from the fact that in other areas of physics not dominated by entropy, all potential energy is available to do useful work and drives the system to spontaneously undergo changes of configuration, and thus there is no distinction between "free" and "non-free" potential energy (hence the one word "potential"). However, in systems of large entropy such as
chemical system A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent Chemical element, elements by physical separation me ...
s, the total amount of energy present (and conserved according to the
first law of thermodynamics The first law of thermodynamics is a version of the law of conservation of energy, adapted for thermodynamic processes, distinguishing three kinds of transfer of energy, as heat, as thermodynamic work, and as energy associated with matter tran ...
) of which this chemical potential energy is a part, is separated from the amount of that energy —
thermodynamic free energy The thermodynamic free energy is a concept useful in the thermodynamics Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, Work (thermodynamics), work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properti ...
(from which
chemical potential In thermodynamics Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, Work (thermodynamics), work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, radiation, and physical properties of matter. The behavior of these quantities is governed ...

is derived) — which (appears to) drive the system forward spontaneously as the global entropy increases (in accordance with the ''second'' law).

References

{{Authority control