Gibbs Free Energy and the Spontaneity of

Chemical Reactions
The change in Gibbs free energy associated with a chemical reaction is a useful
indicator of whether the reaction will proceed spontaneously. Since the change in free
energy is equal to the maximum useful work which can be accomplished by the
reaction

then a negative G associated with a reaction indicates that it can happen

spontaneously. This is consistent with the usual chemistry convention of treating work
done by the system as negative work. Most common reactions can be assessed for
spontaneity under standard conditions by looking up the associated thermodynamic
quantities for each of the reactants and products. For non-standard conditions one can
make use of the the expression for G in terms of the other thermodynamic potentials

The change in free energy G for a reaction can be expressed in terms of the
equilibrium concentrations of the reactants and products. It is convenient to express
G for any reaction in terms of its value under standard conditions where values have
been tabulated. For a reaction represented as
A+BC+D
the change in free energy can be expressed as

Where G0' is the standard free energy change and it is presumed that the temperature
is 25C = 298K.