Reactions with Hydrocarbons - MCAT Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems

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Question

The combustion of pentane with oxygen gas is an exothermic reaction that produces carbon dioxide and water as products. Is this a spontaneous reaction?

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Answer

A balanced equation of the combustion of pentane indicates that one mole of pentane reacts with eight moles of oxygen gas to produce five moles of carbon dioxide and six moles of water.

Because there are nine moles of reactant and eleven moles of product, entropy increases in this reaction. Exothermic reactions that increase entropy are favorable at all temperatures, as seen in the Gibb's free energy equation.

In our scenario, H is negative and S is positive.

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