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Why do we want to find out activation enthalpies for a reaction?

'Why are we interested in activation energies?'.

I asked my friend and they said "perhaps it can be used to find out if the reaction is useful...for a process..as high activation enthalpy is bad... i don't know"

Is it so we can find out how much energy is needed for a reaction to occur between two colliding molecules?

What is the point of investigating/finding out the activation enthalpy? So we can compare it to some other value or...?

Thanks :smile:
Reply 1
Avatar for Mimi97
Mimi97
5
Activation energy is the least amount of energy needed to get a reaction going. So knowing the Ea along with things like ideal pressure and so on allows you to use La Chatelier's principle to come up with the best conditions to make the reaction effective and profitable. Sometimes it may be sufficient to use exactly Ea and a higher pressure, as it may be cheaper and more profitable and using E>Ea may just be a waste.
Original post by Fangedbeast
'Why are we interested in activation energies?'.

I asked my friend and they said "perhaps it can be used to find out if the reaction is useful...for a process..as high activation enthalpy is bad... i don't know"

Is it so we can find out how much energy is needed for a reaction to occur between two colliding molecules?

What is the point of investigating/finding out the activation enthalpy? So we can compare it to some other value or...?

Thanks :smile:


Why do we want to find out the nature of planets?

All information furthers our knowledge of the universe...

There is no 'industrial' advantage to finding the activation energy. However, it helps us to understand the processes involved in reactions and corroborate possible mechanisms.
Reply 3
Avatar for Fangedbeast
Fangedbeast
OP
2
Original post by Mimi97
Activation energy is the least amount of energy needed to get a reaction going. So knowing the Ea along with things like ideal pressure and so on allows you to use La Chatelier's principle to come up with the best conditions to make the reaction effective and profitable. Sometimes it may be sufficient to use exactly Ea and a higher pressure, as it may be cheaper and more profitable and using E>Ea may just be a waste.


Thanks :smile:

Original post by charco
Why do we want to find out the nature of planets?

All information furthers our knowledge of the universe...

There is no 'industrial' advantage to finding the activation energy. However, it helps us to understand the processes involved in reactions and corroborate possible mechanisms.


Really? After thinking about it there could be an industrial advantage to knowing the activation enthalpy e.g. for estimating profitable conditions for a reaction to occur in: if the activation enthalpy for a reaction (I don't know, making pizza?) turns out to be only 150kJ/mol then investing in a 500 Celsius heater/oven for the process may not be needed.

And about the mechanisms part do you mean something like this?
If the activation enthalpy is found to be small experimentally and a suggested mechanism involves a high activation enthalpy (found from google) then the suggested mechanism might be wrong due to the contradiction?

Thanks btw :smile:
(edited 8 years ago)

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