Products are the species formed from

chemical reaction A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the chemical transformation of one set of chemical substances to another. Classically, chemical reactions encompass changes that only involve the positions of electrons in the forming and breaking ...

s. During a chemical reaction, reactants are transformed into products after passing through a high energy

transition state In chemistry, the transition state of a chemical reaction is a particular configuration along the reaction coordinate. It is defined as the state corresponding to the highest potential energy along this reaction coordinate. It is often marked ...

. This process results in the consumption of the reactants. It can be a spontaneous reaction or mediated by

catalyst Catalysis () is the process of increasing the rate of a chemical reaction by adding a substance known as a catalyst (). Catalysts are not consumed in the reaction and remain unchanged after it. If the reaction is rapid and the catalyst recyc ...

s which lower the energy of the transition state, and by

solvent A solvent (s) (from the Latin '' solvō'', "loosen, untie, solve") is a substance that dissolves a solute, resulting in a solution. A solvent is usually a liquid but can also be a solid, a gas, or a supercritical fluid. Water is a solvent for ...

s which provide the chemical environment necessary for the reaction to take place. When represented in chemical equations, products are by convention drawn on the right-hand side, even in the case of

reversible reaction A reversible reaction is a reaction in which the conversion of reactants to products and the conversion of products to reactants occur simultaneously. : \mathit aA + \mathit bB \mathit cC + \mathit dD A and B can react to form C and D or, in the ...

s. The properties of products such as their energies help determine several characteristics of a chemical reaction, such as whether the reaction is

exergonic An exergonic process is one which there is a positive flow of energy from the system to the surroundings. This is in contrast with an endergonic process. Constant pressure, constant temperature reactions are exergonic if and only if the Gibbs ...

endergonic In chemical thermodynamics, an endergonic reaction (; also called a heat absorbing nonspontaneous reaction or an unfavorable reaction) is a chemical reaction in which the standard change in free energy is positive, and an additional driving fo ...

. Additionally, the properties of a product can make it easier to extract and purify following a chemical reaction, especially if the product has a different state of matter than the reactants. Spontaneous reaction :

R \rightarrow P

*Where R is reactant and P is product. Catalysed reaction :

R + C \rightarrow P + C

*Where R is reactant, P is product and C is catalyst. Much of chemistry research is focused on the

synthesis Synthesis or synthesize may refer to: Science Chemistry and biochemistry * Chemical synthesis, the execution of chemical reactions to form a more complex molecule from chemical precursors **Organic synthesis, the chemical synthesis of organ ...

and characterization of beneficial products, as well as the detection and removal of undesirable products. Synthetic chemists can be subdivided into research chemists who design new chemicals and pioneer new methods for synthesizing chemicals, as well as process chemists who scale up chemical production and make it safer, more environmentally sustainable, and more efficient. Other fields include natural product chemists who isolate products created by living organisms and then characterize and study these products.

Determination of reaction

The products of a chemical reaction influence several aspects of the reaction. If the products are lower in energy than the reactants, then the reaction will give off excess energy making it an

exergonic reaction In chemical thermodynamics, an exergonic reaction is a chemical reaction where the change in the free energy is negative (there is a net release of free energy). This indicates a spontaneous reaction if the system is closed and initial and fina ...

. Such reactions are thermodynamically favorable and tend to happen on their own. If the

kinetics Kinetics ( grc, κίνησις, , kinesis, ''movement'' or ''to move'') may refer to: Science and medicine * Kinetics (physics), the study of motion and its causes ** Rigid body kinetics, the study of the motion of rigid bodies * Chemical kin ...

of the reaction are high enough, however, then the reaction may occur too slowly to be observed, or not even occur at all. This is the case with the conversion of diamond to lower energy graphite at atmospheric pressure, in such a reaction diamond is considered metastable and will not be observed converting into graphite. If the products are higher in chemical energy than the reactants then the reaction will require energy to be performed and is therefore an endergonic reaction. Additionally if the product is less stable than a reactant, then Leffler's assumption holds that the transition state will more closely resemble the product than the reactant. Sometimes the product will differ significantly enough from the reactant that it is easily purified following the reaction such as when a product is insoluble and precipitates out of solution while the reactants remained dissolved.

History

Ever since the mid-nineteenth century, chemists have been increasingly preoccupied with synthesizing chemical products. Disciplines focused on isolation and characterization of products, such as natural products chemists, remain important to the field, and the combination of their contributions alongside synthetic chemists has resulted in much of the framework through which chemistry is understood today. Much of synthetic chemistry is concerned with the synthesis of new chemicals as occurs in the design and creation of new drugs, as well as the discovery of new synthetic techniques. Beginning in the early 2000s,

process chemistry Process chemistry is the arm of pharmaceutical chemistry concerned with the development and optimization of a synthetic scheme and pilot plant procedure to manufacture compounds for the drug development phase. Process chemistry is distinguished fr ...

began emerging as a distinct field of synthetic chemistry focused on scaling up chemical synthesis to industrial levels, as well as finding ways to make these processes more efficient, safer, and environmentally responsible.

Biochemistry

biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

enzyme Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecules known as products ...

s act as biological

s to convert substrate to product. For example, the products of the enzyme lactase are galactose and

glucose Glucose is a simple sugar with the molecular formula . Glucose is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. Glucose is mainly made by plants and most algae during photosynthesis from water and carbon dioxide, u ...

, which are produced from the substrate lactose. :

S + E \rightarrow P + E

*Where S is substrate, P is product and E is enzyme.

Product promiscuity

Some enzymes display a form of promiscuity where they convert a single substrate into multiple different products. It occurs when the reaction occurs via a high energy

that can be resolved into a variety of different chemical products.

Product inhibition

Some enzymes are inhibited by the product of their reaction binds to the enzyme and reduces its activity. This can be important in the regulation of

metabolism Metabolism (, from el, μεταβολή ''metabolē'', "change") is the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in organisms. The three main functions of metabolism are: the conversion of the energy in food to energy available to run ...

as a form of negative feedback controlling

metabolic pathway In biochemistry, a metabolic pathway is a linked series of chemical reactions occurring within a cell. The reactants, products, and intermediates of an enzymatic reaction are known as metabolites, which are modified by a sequence of chemical ...

s. Product inhibition is also an important topic in

biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used ...

, as overcoming this effect can increase the yield of a product.

References