Question

How can enthalpy provide insight into the type of chemical reaction?

Answer 1

Enthalpy:-

• Enthalpy is defined as the heat content of a system which represents the total amount of heat lost or gained during a chemical reaction.
• Depending on the enthalpy of a system, a reaction is called the exothermic reaction if it has a negative value(heat is lost) during the reaction.
• Whereas if the reaction has a positive value of enthalpy (heat is gained), the reaction type is called an endothermic reaction.
• For a reaction to be spontaneous or thermodynamically favourable, the reaction should have a negative value of enthalpy which suggests the reaction to be an exothermic process.

Hence, this way enthalpy provides insight into the type of chemical reaction, i,e for a reaction to be spontaneous, the enthalpy should be decreasing.