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