Question

Can the activation energy be negative?

Answer 1

Activation energy

1. Activation energy is defined as the minimum amount of extra energy required by a reacting molecule to get converted into a product.
2. To get started, all chemical reactions require activation energy.
3. Although the energy changes that result from a reaction can be positive, negative, or even zero, before a reaction can occur, an energy barrier must be resolved in both situations.
4. This means the energy for activation is still positive.
5. In certain cases, with increasing temperature, reaction rates decrease.
6. Usually, elementary reactions that show these negative activation energies are barrier-less reactions, in which the mechanism of reaction depends on the capture of the molecules in a potential well.
7. For such cases, the activation energy is said to be negative.