This week, we reviewed compound naming, learned about thermodynamically favoring, and redox reactions.
The compound naming was a hotpot quiz we had that was due on Monday. It consisted of all of the compounds that we need to know (which we probably should've already known). I thought the hotpot was really helpful because I'm still not completely comfortable with all of the compounds, but I've definitely got a lot of them down.
A thermodynamically favored process is called spontaneous. It means it's a process that proceeds without any assistance from outside the system such as, iron rusting at the presence of oxygen and water. A thermodynamically unfavored process is called non-spontaneous. It means that a process requires assistance from outside the system in order to induce change such as, water does not freeze at 15 degrees Celcius. A process that is thermodynamically favored in one direction is not favored in the other direction. Exothermic processes are typically thermodynamically favored because nature tends to favor processes that cause a reduction in energy. In an exothermic reaction, the bonds in the products contain less energy than the bonds in the reactants and the excess energy is released as heat. Endothermic processes can be thermodynamically favored - evaporation and dissolving soluble compounds are thermodynamically favored. The first law of thermodynamics is the energy contained in the universe is constant. The second law of thermodynamics is the entropy of the universe is constantly increasing. If the combination of entropies is positive, the reaction is favored. Heat in an exothermic reaction leaves the system, and heat goes into a system in endothermic reactions. If enthalpy (H) is negative and entropy (S) is positive then the reaction is spontaneous at all temperatures. If enthalpy is positive and entropy is negative then the reaction is non spontaneous at all temperatures.
A reduction reaction is sometimes called a redox reaction. It's a reaction where electrons are transferred and one of the substances gets oxidized (loses electrons) and the other substance gets reduced (gains electrons). Most reactions are redox reactions except for double displacement and acid base.
I'm excited for the lab on Tuesday. I would give my understanding this week about an 8. For some of the I understand the equations and the worksheets we worked on this week but I just think I need to work a little more on knowing which equation to use and when. I sometimes get the right answer to the question, but I have no idea how or why I came to that answer so I definitely need to look at that. I know I have a lot to study for the test this week.
