MCAT General Chemistry Review - Alexander Stone Macnow, MD 2019-2020

Thermochemistry
Conclusion

We began our discussion of thermochemistry with a review of different ways in which we characterize systems (open, closed, and isolated) and processes (isothermal, adiabatic, isobaric, and isovolumetric). We then further classified systems according to their state functions—system properties such as pressure, density, temperature, volume, enthalpy, internal energy, Gibbs free energy, and entropy that describe the equilibrium state. We examined the equilibria that exist between the different phases and noted that the change in Gibbs free energy for each phase change in equilibrium is zero, as is the case for all equilibria. We defined enthalpy as the heat content of the system and the change in enthalpy as the change in heat content of the system as it moves from one equilibrium state to another. Enthalpy is defined as the energy found in the intermolecular interactions and bonds of the compounds in the system. We explored the various ways Hess’s law can be applied to calculate the total enthalpy change for a series of reactions. Moving on to entropy, we described this property as a measure of the degree to which energy in a system becomes spread out through a process. There is danger in thinking too literally about entropy as “disorder” because a system’s entropy may be increasing even if there is no observable change in the system’s macroscopic disorder (such as ice warming from —10°C to —5°C). Gibbs free energy combines the effects of temperature, enthalpy, and entropy, and the change in Gibbs free energy determines whether a process will be spontaneous or nonspontaneous. When the change in Gibbs free energy is negative, the process is spontaneous, but when the change in Gibbs free energy is positive, the process is nonspontaneous.

Many reactions in the body must be spontaneous in order for cells to function. While there are some nonspontaneous reactions in our body, we are able to couple them to thermodynamically favorable (exergonic) reactions that allow the cell to perform even more complex functions.