ABSTRACT
Thermodynamics is the study of energy transformations in a chemical reaction or in a physical change of a state. A thermodynamic process is the transfer of matter and/or energy within the system, or between the system and the surroundings. Thermodynamic potentials are different forms to evaluate the stored energy of a system. The ones most important for organic chemists are internal energy, enthalpy, and Gibbs free energy, all of them being interrelated. The microscopic standpoint of a reaction is the understanding of the stoichiometric molecular relation between reactants and products. The experimental thermodynamic data is called standard enthalpy of formation and standard Gibbs free energy of formation. The corresponding theoretical data does not own the term “standard”, since it is obtained from absolute values and not from standardized conditions. To improve the agreement between theoretical and experimental results for reactions involving solvated molecules in water, it is needed to include water molecules interacting through hydrogen bonds with the solvated molecules.
