A Level Chemistry HELP

Hi guys! So there is this following questions from Energetics:
What will happen if a hydrogen atom and a chlorine atom collide with their combined energy of collision is 1.0x10^-18 J?{E(H-Cl)=431 kJ mol^-1}

so,I found that energy of a single H-Cl bond is 7.16x10^-19 J.So,I thought that there would be a reaction. But in the answer booklet,it was written that 1.0x10^-18 J>7.16x10^-19 J,so the atoms would just bounce off each other and wouldn't bond together.My question is,there is already enough energy available,so shouldn't they bond?

Please clarify this for me!

Reply 1

charco

Study Forum Helper

Original post by Anlasan

If you have done your calculations correctly then, yes, if the collision energy is greater than the bond energy bond cleavage is possible for the process H-Cl ==> H + Cl.
BUT
You are not considering bond cleavage, and bond formation is exothermic, so it does not need any collision energy. In fact if the collision energy is greater than the bond energy the atoms will bounce off each other and not combine.

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