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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 1996  > July  >
The Forum: Demystifying Introductory Chemistry
An Approach to Reaction Thermodynamics through Enthalpies, Entropies, and Free Energies of Atomization
Ronald J. Gillespie
Department of Chemistry, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4M1, Canada

James N. Spencer and Richard S. Moog
Department of Chemistry, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA 17604-3003

Cover
July 1996
Vol. 73 No. 7
p. 631
Abstract
An alternative to the conventional method of calculating enthalpies of reaction is presented, using enthalpies of atomization in place of enthalpies of formation. This allows the student to see directly that the reaction enthalpies are determined by the difference in bond strengths in the reactants and products. This approach also unifies the model used for considering enthalpies, entropies, and free energies of reaction by calculating all three of these quantities with reference to the same "conceptual intermediate"--the totally atomized state, rather than the stable state of aggregation under standard conditions. This concept--the decomposition of a compound to its constituent gaseous atoms--can be used to discuss not only the thermodynamic parameters but also equilibrium and stoichiometry.

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*  Citation
 James N. Spencer, Richard S. Moog, and Ronald J. Gillespie. J. Chem. Educ. 1996 73 631.
*  Keywords
*  History
 Created:
Last Updated:		 9/23/1999
5/22/2006
Link to Letters added (June 2004).
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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 1996 > July > Page 631


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