Chemical potential energy

Chemical potential energy The energy stored in a substance because of its composition is called chemical potential energy. Chemical potential energy plays an important role in chemical reactions. For example, consider octane (CgH,g), one of the principal components of gasoline. The chemical potential energy of octane results from the arrangement of the carbon and... 

Explosion the sudden conversion of potential energy (chemical or mechanical) into kinetic energy with the production and release of gases under pressure, or the release of gas under pressure... 

We conclude this section by discussing an expression for the excess chemical potential in temrs of the pair correlation fimction and a parameter X, which couples the interactions of one particle with the rest. The idea of a coupling parameter was mtrodiiced by Onsager [20] and Kirkwood [Hj. The choice of X depends on the system considered. In an electrolyte solution it could be the charge, but in general it is some variable that characterizes the pair potential. The potential energy of the system... 

The above discussion represents a necessarily brief simnnary of the aspects of chemical reaction dynamics. The theoretical focus of tliis field is concerned with the development of accurate potential energy surfaces and the calculation of scattering dynamics on these surfaces. Experimentally, much effort has been devoted to developing complementary asymptotic techniques for product characterization and frequency- and time-resolved teclmiques to study transition-state spectroscopy and dynamics. It is instructive to see what can be accomplished with all of these capabilities. Of all the benclunark reactions mentioned in section A3.7.2. the reaction F + H2 —> HE + H represents the best example of how theory and experiment can converge to yield a fairly complete picture of the dynamics of a chemical reaction. Thus, the remainder of this chapter focuses on this reaction as a case study in reaction dynamics. 

In this section we present several numerical teclmiques that are conmronly used to solve the Sclirodinger equation for scattering processes. Because the potential energy fiinctions used in many chemical physics problems are complicated (but known to reasonable precision), new numerical methods have played an important role in extending the domain of application of scattering theory. Indeed, although much of the fomial development of the previous sections was known 30 years ago, the numerical methods (and computers) needed to put this fomialism to work have only been developed since then. 

A number of different experimental methods may be used to energize the unimolecular reactant A. For example, energization can take place by the potential energy release in chemical reaction, i.e. 

B3.3.6 FREE ENERGIES, CHEMICAL POTENTIALS AND WEIGHTED SAMPLING... 

The use of isotopic substitution to detennine stmctures relies on the assumption that different isotopomers have the same stmcture. This is not nearly as reliable for Van der Waals complexes as for chemically bound molecules. In particular, substituting D for H in a hydride complex can often change the amplitudes of bending vibrations substantially under such circumstances, the idea that the complex has a single stmcture is no longer appropriate and it is necessary to think instead of motion on the complete potential energy surface a well defined equilibrium stmcture may still exist, but knowledge of it does not constitute an adequate description of the complex. 

Chemical reaction dynamics is an attempt to understand chemical reactions at tire level of individual quantum states. Much work has been done on isolated molecules in molecular beams, but it is unlikely tliat tliis infonnation can be used to understand condensed phase chemistry at tire same level [8]. In a batli, tire reacting solute s potential energy surface is altered by botli dynamic and static effects. The static effect is characterized by a potential of mean force. The dynamical effects are characterized by tire force-correlation fimction or tire frequency-dependent friction [8]. 

---