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The kilocalorie per mole is a unit to measure an amount of
energy Energy () is the physical quantity, quantitative physical property, property that is transferred to a physical body, body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of Work (thermodynamics), work and in the form of heat and l ...
per number of
molecule A molecule is a group of two or more atoms that are held together by Force, attractive forces known as chemical bonds; depending on context, the term may or may not include ions that satisfy this criterion. In quantum physics, organic chemi ...
s,
atom Atoms are the basic particles of the chemical elements. An atom consists of a atomic nucleus, nucleus of protons and generally neutrons, surrounded by an electromagnetically bound swarm of electrons. The chemical elements are distinguished fr ...
s, or other similar
particle In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscle in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass. They vary greatly in size or quantity, from s ...
s. It is defined as one
kilocalorie The calorie is a unit of energy that originated from the caloric theory of heat. The large calorie, food calorie, dietary calorie, kilocalorie, or kilogram calorie is defined as the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one liter of w ...
of energy (1000 thermochemical gram
calorie The calorie is a unit of energy that originated from the caloric theory of heat. The large calorie, food calorie, dietary calorie, kilocalorie, or kilogram calorie is defined as the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one liter o ...
s) per one mole of substance. The unit symbol is written kcal/mol or kcal⋅mol−1. As typically measured, one kcal/mol represents a temperature increase of one degree Celsius in one liter of water (with a mass of 1 kg) resulting from the reaction of one mole of reagents. In
SI units The International System of Units, internationally known by the abbreviation SI (from French ), is the modern form of the metric system and the world's most widely used system of measurement. It is the only system of measurement with official st ...
, one kilocalorie per mole is equal to 4.184 kilojoules per mole (kJ/mol), which comes to approximately
joule The joule ( , or ; symbol: J) is the unit of energy in the International System of Units (SI). In terms of SI base units, one joule corresponds to one kilogram- metre squared per second squared One joule is equal to the amount of work d ...
s per molecule, or about 0.043  eV per molecule. At
room temperature Room temperature, colloquially, denotes the range of air temperatures most people find comfortable indoors while dressed in typical clothing. Comfortable temperatures can be extended beyond this range depending on humidity, air circulation, and ...
(25 °C, 77 °F, or 298.15 K), one kilocalorie per mole is approximately equal to 1.688 kT per molecule. Even though it is not an SI unit, the kilocalorie per mole is still widely used in
chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...
and
biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...
for thermodynamical quantities such as
thermodynamic free energy In thermodynamics, the thermodynamic free energy is one of the state functions of a thermodynamic system. The change in the free energy is the maximum amount of work that the system can perform in a process at constant temperature, and its ...
,
heat of vaporization In thermodynamics, the enthalpy of vaporization (symbol ), also known as the (latent) heat of vaporization or heat of evaporation, is the amount of energy (enthalpy) that must be added to a liquid substance to Phase transition, transform a qua ...
,
heat of fusion In thermodynamics, the enthalpy of fusion of a substance, also known as (latent) heat of fusion, is the change in its enthalpy resulting from providing energy, typically heat, to a specific quantity of the substance to change its state from a s ...
and
ionization energy In physics and chemistry, ionization energy (IE) is the minimum energy required to remove the most loosely bound electron of an isolated gaseous atom, Ion, positive ion, or molecule. The first ionization energy is quantitatively expressed as : ...
. This is due to a variety of factors, including the ease with which it can be calculated based on the units of measure typically employed in quantifying a chemical reaction, especially in aqueous solution. In addition, for many important biological processes, thermodynamic changes are on a convenient order of magnitude when expressed in kcal/mol. For example, for the reaction of
glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecular formula , which is often abbreviated as Glc. It is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. It is mainly made by plants and most algae d ...
with ATP to form glucose-6-phosphate and ADP, the free energy of reaction is −4.0 kcal/mol using the pH = 7
standard state The standard state of a material (pure substance, mixture or solution) is a reference point used to calculate its properties under different conditions. A degree sign (°) or a superscript ⦵ symbol (⦵) is used to designate a thermodynamic q ...
.


References

Energy (physics) Thermodynamics Heat transfer Units of chemical measurement {{thermodynamics-stub