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The oxygen reduction reaction is an essential reaction for aerobic organisms. Such organisms are powered by the heat of combustion of fuel (food) by O 2 . Rather than combustion, organisms rely on elaborate sequences of electron-transfer reactions, often coupled to proton transfer.
Oxygen evolution is the chemical process of generating elemental diatomic oxygen (O 2) by a chemical reaction, usually from water, the most abundant oxide compound in the universe. Oxygen evolution on Earth is effected by biotic oxygenic photosynthesis, photodissociation, hydroelectrolysis, and thermal decomposition of various oxides and oxyacids.
For many substances, the formation reaction may be considered as the sum of a number of simpler reactions, either real or fictitious. The enthalpy of reaction can then be analyzed by applying Hess' law, which states that the sum of the enthalpy changes for a number of individual reaction steps equals the enthalpy change of the overall reaction.
Of the two half reactions, the oxidation step is the most demanding because it requires the coupling of 4 electron and proton transfers and the formation of an oxygen-oxygen bond. This process occurs naturally in plants photosystem II to provide protons and electrons for the photosynthesis process and release oxygen to the atmosphere, [ 1 ] as ...
Standard enthalpy of combustion is the enthalpy change when one mole of an organic compound reacts with molecular oxygen (O 2) to form carbon dioxide and liquid water. For example, the standard enthalpy of combustion of ethane gas refers to the reaction C 2 H 6 (g) + (7/2) O 2 (g) → 2 CO 2 (g) + 3 H 2 O (l).
A terrestrial example is the coexistence of methane and oxygen, both of which would eventually deplete if not for continuous biogenic production. The amount of disequilibrium can be described by differencing observed and equilibrium state Gibbs energies for a given atmosphere composition; it can be shown that this quantity has been directly ...
Relative to the absolute temperature scale, the excitation levels of the species are gathered based on standard enthalpy change of formation considerations; i.e. their stabilities. As this value is null for water but strictly positive for oxygen and hydrogen, most of the excitation levels of these last species are above the ones of water.
The enthalpy of a chemical system is essentially its energy. The enthalpy change ΔH for a reaction is equal to the heat q transferred out of (or into) a closed system at constant pressure without in- or output of electrical energy. Heat production or absorption in a chemical reaction is measured using calorimetry, e.g. with a bomb calorimeter.