Ask a Teacher

Search



what do you mean by exothermic reaction?
Exothermic reactions

Many chemical reactions release energy in the form of heat, light, or sound. These are exothermic reactions. Exothermic reactions may occur spontaneously and result in higher randomness or entropy (?S > 0) of the system. They are denoted by a negative heat flow (heat is lost to the surroundings) and decrease in enthalpy (?H < 0). In the lab, exothermic reactions produce heat or may even be explosive.
An example of an exothermic reaction is the mixture of sodium and chlorine to yield table salt. This reaction produces 411 kJ of energy for each mole of salt that is produced:

Na(s) + 0.5Cl2(s) = NaCl(s)


comments powered by Disqus