The joule per mole (symbol: J·mol⁻¹ or J/mol) is the unit of

energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of hea ...

per

amount of substance In chemistry, the amount of substance ''n'' in a given sample of matter is defined as the quantity or number of discrete atomic-scale particles in it divided by the Avogadro constant ''N''A. The particles or entities may be molecules, atoms, io ...

in the International System of Units (SI), such that energy is measured in

joule The joule ( , ; symbol: J) is the unit of energy in the International System of Units (SI). It is equal to the amount of work done when a force of 1 newton displaces a mass through a distance of 1 metre in the direction of the force applie ...

s, and the amount of substance is measured in moles. It is also an SI derived unit of molar

thermodynamic energy The internal energy of a thermodynamic system is the total energy contained within it. It is the energy necessary to create or prepare the system in its given internal state, and includes the contributions of potential energy and internal kinet ...

defined as the energy equal to one joule in one mole of substance. For example, the

Gibbs free energy In thermodynamics, the Gibbs free energy (or Gibbs energy; symbol G) is a thermodynamic potential that can be used to calculate the maximum amount of work (physics), work that may be performed by a closed system, thermodynamically closed system a ...

of a compound in the area of

thermochemistry Thermochemistry is the study of the heat energy which is associated with chemical reactions and/or phase changes such as melting and boiling. A reaction may release or absorb energy, and a phase change may do the same. Thermochemistry focuses on ...

is often quantified in units of kilojoules per mole (symbol: kJ·mol⁻¹ or kJ/mol), with 1 kilojoule = 1000 joules. Physical quantities measured in J·mol⁻¹ usually describe quantities of energy transferred during phase transformations or

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 break ...

s. Division by the number of moles facilitates comparison between processes involving different quantities of material and between similar processes involving different types of materials. The precise meaning of such a quantity is dependent on the context (what substances are involved, circumstances, etc.), but the unit of measurement is used specifically to describe certain existing phenomena, such as in thermodynamics it is the unit of measurement that describes molar energy. Since 1 mole = 6.02214076 particles (atoms, molecules, ions etc.), 1 joule per mole is equal to 1 joule divided by 6.02214076 particles, ≈1.660539 joule per particle. This very small amount of energy is often expressed in terms of an even smaller unit such as the kJ·mol⁻¹, because of the typical order of magnitude for energy changes in chemical processes. For example, heats of fusion and

vaporization Vaporization (or vaporisation) of an element or compound is a phase transition from the liquid phase to vapor. There are two types of vaporization: evaporation and boiling. Evaporation is a surface phenomenon, whereas boiling is a bulk phenomenon. ...

are usually of the order of 10 kJ·mol⁻¹, bond energies are of the order of 100 kJ·mol⁻¹, and ionization energies of the order of 1000 kJ·mol⁻¹. Other units sometimes used to describe reaction energetics are kilocalories per mole (kcal·mol⁻¹), electron volts per particle (eV), and

wavenumbers In the physical sciences, the wavenumber (also wave number or repetency) is the '' spatial frequency'' of a wave, measured in cycles per unit distance (ordinary wavenumber) or radians per unit distance (angular wavenumber). It is analogous to t ...

in inverse centimeters (cm⁻¹). 1 kJ·mol⁻¹ is approximately equal to 1.04 eV per particle, 0.239 kcal·mol⁻¹, or 83.6 cm⁻¹. At room temperature (25

°C The degree Celsius is the unit of temperature on the Celsius scale (originally known as the centigrade scale outside Sweden), one of two temperature scales used in the International System of Units (SI), the other being the Kelvin scale. The d ...

, or 298.15 K) 1 kJ·mol⁻¹ is approximately equal to 0.4034

k_B T

References

SI derived units {{measurement-stub