Question

How do chemical bonds store energy?

Answer 1

The answer is based on the fact that chemical bonds contain some energy and also there can be addition of energy to the molecule which result in disintegration or oxidation of the molecule and the correct answer lies in this fact that whether the given statement is true or false.

Complete step by step answer:
- In the lower classes, we have come across the concepts of inorganic chemistry which gives the explanation for the various types of energies possessed by a molecule like the kinetic energy, potential energy and so on.
Let us now see in detail about whether the chemicals bond stores energy or not and if it stores then how will it store.
- As a matter of fact, the chemical bonds do not store energy and the correct term to be used here is that chemical bonds contain energy particularly potential energy and the atoms will be more stable if this potential energy is low.
- If we add energy to a molecule say methane in the form of flame or spark in the presence of oxygen, some of the molecules will have enough energy to overcome activation energy and some $C-H$ bonds will break.
- The electrons from the fragments will enter the lower energy and rearrange themselves to form $C{{O}_{2}}$ and ${{H}_{2}}O$
This proves that the chemical bonds do not store energy.

Note: Activation energy is nothing but energy that must be provided to compounds to result in a chemical reaction and this energy is measured in terms of joules per mole, kilojoules per mole or kilocalories per mole.