What term describes the minimum energy required to initiate a chemical reaction?

The term that describes the minimum energy required to initiate a chemical reaction is activation energy. Activation energy is essential because it represents the energy barrier that must be overcome for the reactants to be transformed into products. This energy is necessary to break bonds in the reactants, allowing them to rearrange and form new bonds in the products.

Understanding activation energy is crucial in the study of reaction kinetics, as it helps explain why certain reactions require heating or the presence of a catalyst to proceed. Catalysts lower the activation energy, making it easier for the reaction to occur without necessarily changing the overall energy of the system.

The other terms listed have distinct meanings that do not correspond to the idea of the minimum energy needed to start a reaction. Potential energy refers to stored energy based on an object’s position or state, kinetic energy pertains to the energy of motion, and free energy involves the energy available to do work in a system at constant temperature and pressure, neither of which directly relate to the initiation of a chemical reaction.