From my perspective, as a chemist, the process of personal growth is not all that different from the processes of a chemical reaction. And to understand personal growth through the analogy of a chemical reaction, it’s helpful to first examine the basic steps and components of a chemical reaction. I hope to simplify the steps in chemical reactions by focusing on energy: the energy required to initiate and sustain the reaction, and the energy released as products. This focus on energy is crucial because when we explore personal growth, we’ll similarly concentrate on the energy we invest in our own development.
In its simplest form, a chemical reaction may be written as follows:
Reactants → (Reaction mechanism or process) → Products
For this discussion, I will use the example of a combustion reaction. Most of us should be familiar with building a campfire. Whether it is in our backyard firepit, or we are enjoying s’mores over a campfire. We can break down the individual components of this reaction as follows:
The Reactants: These are the starting materials. When we build a campfire, our reactants are newspaper, twigs, branches, or logs, and the presence of oxygen. You may not consider oxygen when you think of your starting materials, but it is the necessary component in almost all types of combustion reactions.
The Reaction Mechanism: It is the burning of the individual components – newspaper, twigs, larger branches, and logs, and the ignition pattern usually occurs in that order.
The Products: Our campfire produces ashes, heat, light, carbon dioxide (CO2), and water vapor (H2O).
Factors that affect the rate of the reaction, i.e., how fast our fire burns.
The concentration of the reactants. Higher concentrations generally lead to faster reactions – for a campfire, the more newspaper and twigs you have, the faster the fire starts producing heat and light. However it is important to take note of the fact the rate of reaction for the newspaper and the twigs is much faster than that of the branches and logs. While the burning of the newspaper, for example, does produce some heat and light, it does not last very long. Its purpose is to be an intermediate step in the reaction process, solely to light the twigs and perhaps small branches. It would be very difficult to make s’mores on a fire whose only fuel was wads of newspaper.
The activation energy associated with the reaction. This is the initial energy required to initiate a reaction. Think of it like the energy needed to start a snowball rolling downhill. In our example, the fuel, newspaper and wood, even in the presence of oxygen, won’t spontaneously combust. It needs an initial input of energy to start the reaction. This is the activation energy. You provide this energy by lighting a match or using a lighter. The heat from the match is what breaks the initial chemical bonds in a small amount of paper or wood, allowing the combustion process to begin.
Sorry, spontaneous combustion only exists in comic books, the X-Files, and Harry Potter novels.
The presence of a catalyst. A catalyst lowers the activation energy, which speeds up the reaction. By definition, and this is an important qualification, catalysts are not consumed in a reaction.
My Dad would soak the firewood with lighter fluid or, heaven forbid, gasoline before tossing in the match. You would assume, as I did initially, that my Dad’s addition of lighter fluid to the pile of wood would act as a catalyst because it lowers the activation energy, making it easier for the combustion reaction to start. The wood ignites faster and releases heat and light more quickly. This is especially effective when the wood may be damp. But, since the lighter fluid is completely consumed in the burning process, it is not considered to be a catalyst.
In a campfire, metal ions within the embers act as catalysts. These embers, formed from burning wood, retain heat. When new wood is added, the stored heat from the embers lowers the activation energy, thereby accelerating the combustion reaction.
Temperature: Increasing the temperature typically increases the reaction rate. The hotter the fire, the faster the fuel is consumed, requiring us to add more wood to keep the fire burning.
Foundational Background Concepts
Several critical concepts directly relate to chemical reactions. While these concepts aren’t part of the formal reaction process, they play an important role in the comparison between chemical reactions and personal growth.
Chemical Change vs. Physical Change: In a reaction where there is a physical change, that reaction is reversible. Which means that the reagents can be recovered and do not undergo a permanent change in their chemical structure. As an example, dissolving salt in water. The salt undergoes a physical change. I can recover the salt granules by evaporating the water over a hotplate. As long as I don’t boil the water too vigorously, I can recovered the majority of the salt I added.
The combustion reaction, our campfire, is an example of a chemical change. The chemical structure of our reagents, the newspaper and the wood, is permanently altered. This reaction is not reversible. I cannot take the ashes, reverse the reaction process and recreate the wood or newspaper.
Chemical Potential Energy: All substances have stored energy due to their structure or position, which can be converted to another form of energy. In a combustion reaction, each of the reagents has “stored” chemical potential energy due to its structure, which is then “converted” during the combustion process into thermal (heat) and light energy.
Qualitative vs. Quantitative Analysis: A qualitative analysis focuses on the presence of a product of a chemical analysis. In the example of the campfire, strictly whether the combustion process occurs, reaching an endpoint, the production of heat, or light. A quantitative analysis quantifies, measures the amount of reactants consumed and products produced. For example: “How much firewood was burned?”, “What was the temperature produced in the combustion process?” or “How bright was the light due to the flames?”.
Use of an Indicator: Whereas one is not used in this example, an indicator is a substance that undergoes a visible change, typically a color change, to signal the current stage or the endpoint of a reaction. They must react sensitively to small changes in the surrounding environment. The color change should be clear and distinct, making it easy to identify a specific endpoint. Acid-base indicators, specifically phenolphthalein, are a good example. These change color depending on the pH of a solution, indicating whether it is acidic, basic, or neutral.
Exothermic versus Endothermic Reactions: An exothermic reaction is a chemical reaction that releases energy, typically in the form of heat, light, or sound. The word “exothermic” comes from the Greek roots (exo-) meaning “out,” and (-thermic) meaning “heat.” A common example is our combustion reaction, a campfire, where the energy released from the burning wood (heat and light) is much greater than the initial energy, from a match, needed to start the fire.
An endothermic reaction is a chemical reaction that absorbs energy from its surroundings. In these reactions, the products have a higher total energy than the reactants, so energy must be continuously supplied for the reaction to proceed. The word “endothermic” comes from the Greek roots (endo-) meaning “in,” and (-thermic) meaning “heat.” A simple example is a cold pack. When you activate the pack, a reaction occurs that absorbs heat from the surrounding environment, making the pack feel cold to the touch.
Products versus By-products: Products are the primary and intended substances formed during a chemical reaction. They are the goal, what we expect to achieve in the reaction. In the practical, real-world context of a campfire, heat and light are the primary intended products. We don’t build a fire for the carbon dioxide and water vapor it creates; we do it for the warmth and illumination. So, in this specific case, the heat and light are the desired output, making them the main products.
By-products are secondary, unintended, and often undesirable substances formed during a chemical reaction. Unintended outcomes that represent the inefficiency of the chemical reaction, meaning that the reagents are not completely consumed, forming products. In the case of the campfire, the common by-products are: soot, this is unburned carbon that forms when the combustion reaction is not hot enough to convert all the carbon in the wood to carbon dioxide (CO2), Carbon Monoxide (CO), a toxic gas that forms when there is not enough oxygen for a complete reaction, and ash. While each is a predictable part of the combustion process, they are byproducts, in that they are not the intended energy-releasing outputs of the combustion.
In an upcoming post, I will explore the parallels between the constituents and steps of chemical reactions and the process of personal growth, including the role of our foundational concepts.
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