Pakistan International School [English Section] Jeddah
Board Notes
U-8 Energy Changes
Exothermic and Endothermic reactions
Exothermic reactions
An exothermic reaction transfers thermal energy to the surroundings leading to an increase in the temperature
of the surroundings.
Examples include: combustion and neutralization.
Combustion
When a fuel, for example natural gas, burns in excess air, it produces a large amount of energy.
methane + oxygen carbon dioxide + water + ΔH
ΔH means heat released.
However, if not enough air is available for this reaction, it will not produce as much energy and also will produce
carbon monoxide, which is poisonous.
Fig. 1: Reaction pathway diagram for an exothermic reaction
Endothermic reactions
An endothermic reaction takes in thermal energy from the surroundings leading to a decrease in the temperature of
the surroundings.
Examples include: Thermal decomposition and Photosynthesis.
Fig. 2: Reaction pathway diagram for an endothermic reaction
Enthalpy change
The transfer of thermal energy during a reaction is called the enthalpy change, ΔH, of the reaction.
ΔH is negative for exothermic reactions and positive for endothermic reactions.
Activation energy
start a
Activation energy, Ea, is the minimum energy that colliding particles must have to strat a reaction. If the
particles have less energy than this amount and they collide, they will not react.
Making and breaking bonds
Bond breaking is an endothermic process (to break bonds, you need to take in energy). While bond
making is an exothermic process.
In a reaction, there is both bond breaking and bond making.
A reaction in which more energy is taken in breaking bonds than the energy released in bond formation, is
known as an endothermic reaction.
While a reaction in which more energy is released in bond formation than energy absorbed during bonds breaking,
is known as an exothermic reaction.
Calculating enthalpy change
To calculate enthalpy change, ΔH of a reaction, we need to first list out the bonds in the reactants and products side.
For example, let’s take the equation:
CH4 (g) + 2 O2 (g) CO2 (g) + 2 H2O(l)
from the combustion reaction we talked about above. From this equation, we can figure out that there are:
4 C−H bonds
2 O=O bonds
on the reactants side while there are:
2 C=O bonds
4 H−O bonds on
the products side.
Now, we’d be given a table listing the bond energies like:
Bond Bond energy/kJ/mol
C−H 435
O=O 497
C=O 803
H−O 464
C−C 347
C−O 358
Using this table we can calculate the energies on both the sides and use that to calculate the enthalpy change:
Reactants (bond breaking)
4 C−H bonds = 4 × 435 = 1740 kJ
2 O=O bonds = 2 × 497 = 994 kJ
Which comes to a total of 2734 kJ of energy which is required to break the bonds in the reactants.
Products (making bonds)
2 C=O bonds = 2 × 803 = 1606 kJ
4 H−O bonds = 4 × 464 = 1856 kJ
Which comes out to a total of 3462 kJ of energy given out when the bonds are made.
Calculating enthalpy change
To calculate enthalpy change, we use the following formula:
ΔH = energy required to break bonds − energy given out when bonds are made
now substitute the values:
ΔH = 2734 − 3462 = −728 KJ
The negative sign shows that the reactants are losing energy to their surroundings. The
enthalpy change is negative, which means that the reaction is exothermic.
