vijesh jayan
Last Activity: 14 Years ago
Enthalpy is a measure of the total energy of a thermodynamic system. It includes the internal energy, which is the energy required to create a system, and the amount of energy required to make room for it by displacing its environment and establishing its volume and pressure.
Enthalpy is a thermodynamic potential. It is a state function and an extensive quantity. The unit of measurement in the International System of Units (SI) for enthalpy is the joule, but other historical, conventional units are still in use, such as the small and the large calorie.
The enthalpy is the preferred expression of system energy changes in many chemical, biological, and physical measurements, because it simplifies certain descriptions of energy transfer , as it is not affected by energy transferred to the environment through the expansion of the system under study. The total enthalpy, H, of a system cannot be measured directly. Thus, change in enthalpy, ΔH, is a more useful quantity than its absolute value. The change ΔH is positive in endothermic reactions, and negative in exothermic processes. ΔH of a system is equal to the sum of non-mechanical work done on it and the heat supplied to it.