Question

What type of energy is stored in chemical bonds?

Answer 1

Answer:

There is no such thing as “stored” bond energy. Stored bond energy suggests that the energy in a chemical bond is available to be released. The bond energy between two atoms is the energy required to break those two atoms apart - that’s all - no more no less. So how do you get energy from chemical bonds? Glad you asked. The energy you get from a chemical bond is the difference between the bonds of the reactants and the bonds of the products in a chemical reaction. For example, the reaction,[math] 2{ H }_{ 2 }+{ O }_{ 2 }\longrightarrow 2{ H }_{ 2 }O[/math] gives off substantial energy because the four O-H bonds in water are stronger (larger) than the sum of the 2 H-H bond energies plus the O=O bond energy. Another way of looking at this is that water is more stable than hydrogen and oxygen molecules.