Question about energy in molecules

Question

If molecules have electricity and/or nuclear energy, how does either energy make molecules really strong?

And can you tell me how do molecules "make" the energy inside of them? Is it like a battery with the energy stored inside, slowly coming out, or something else we are not sure about yet?

Answer 1

Energy is given off by atoms and molecules when they become more stable.

When two atoms come together to form a molecule, they give off energy. The energy they give off is equal to the strength of the bond that was formed when the two molecules come together.

Now to take apart these atoms you need to theoretically provide that amount of energy in the correct conditions.

For nuclear energy, this happens as neuclei become more stable.

Have a look at this graph, http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hba...

You can see that on the left, the lighter ones have a small energy and on the right they have a slightly lower energy too compared to the things in the middle (iron and stuff).

When we fuse hydrogen atoms into heavier molecules, the result is more stable helium nuclei - as they stabilise they give off energy that we can use - heat, to boil water and generate electricity.

On the right we see uranium 235, we can split this to form 2 atoms that are closer to the middle (more stable) and this releases heat energy that we use.

The energy inside atoms and molecules is there unless it reacts, it does not slowly leak out over time unless it is slowly reacting over time (such as radioactive elements with a long half life).

All this energy is due to the law of conservation of energy, if atoms could become more stable and not give off energy that would mean energy gets lost and things would go terrible wrong with the universe. To overcome this and balance the energy lost, the atoms give off energy as they stabilise. This results in energy not being lost or created ;)

I hope this explains it ;)

Answer 2

Well atoms have nuclear energy, according to Einstein, mass can be converted to energy (E = mc^2). So the sum of an atoms parts (nuetrons and protons) does not equal the sum of the whole. Instead some of that mass is converted to energy, in order to hold the subatomic particles together (basically to overcome the electrostatic repulsion between the protons). It does not slowly come out, if an atom is split this energy is released, if the reaction in uncontrolled (domino effect would occur, as one atom is split many others would follow) you get a nuclear bomb.

Answer 3

A molecule can have kinetic (thermal) energy from its motion and from the  relative motion of its atoms stretching their bonds.  An electron can have electric potential energy if it's in an orbit with a higher energy than its minimum energy orbit.  When the electron drops back down to its lowest energy orbit, it releases that energy as a photon.  The nuclear energy represented by the strong nuclear interaction can be released by fission or fusion nuclear reactions.  Electric potential energy can also be absorbed or released by chemical reactions.

Molecular binding (especially covalent) gets its strength from the fact that valence electrons have a lower energy state when orbiting the combined nuclei than when orbiting the individual atoms.  To break the bond, you need to add energy to raise those electrons out of their lowest energy state.  The study of these details is physical chemistry.