ABSTRACT
We know several million different compounds, and 100,000 of these chemicals have environmental interest, because they may threaten the environment (Jørgensen 2000). The number of possible reactions among these chemicals is enormous, and it is of course not possible to set up a table of the equilibrium constants for all these reactions. We can, however, apply the standard free energies of formation of chemical compounds, ΔGo. The standard free energy of formation of a compound is the free energy of reaction by which it is formed from its elements when all the reactants and products are in the standard state; that is, the activities are all one or by ideal conditions, it means that the concentrations are all one. Free energy equations can be added and subtracted just as thermochemical equations. It implies that the free energy of any reaction can be calculated from the sum of the free energies of the products minus the sum of the free energies of the reactants: https://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> ΔG o = ΣG o ( products) − ΣG o ( reactants ) https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-u.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780429189395/8cc7b49f-4a61-4375-bf13-c697c3876bf3/content/eq10_1.tif"/>
