LAWS OF THERMODYNAMICS

AND GIBB’S FREE ENERGY

Department of Biochemistry
Midnapore Medical College
 Laws of Thermodynamics
• First law of thermodynamics: The total energy
of a system , including it’s suroundings,
remains constant.
• Second law of thermodynamics: The total
entropy of a system must increase if a process
is to occur spontaneously.
• Entropy: The extent of randomness or
disorder of the system.
 Gibb’s free energy
• Total energy has two portions- one portion is
for entropy of the system-another portion is
’free’ for transforming and available for
different functions.
• ∆G = ∆H - T∆S
• ∆H = change in heat content(enthalpy), T =
absolute temperature, ∆G = Gibb’s free energy
change and ∆S = change in entropy.
 Biological system
• Biological systems are isothermic.
• In reactions of biological system, ∆E can be
considered as ∆H, where ∆E is change of total
internal energy of the reaction.
• So the equation becomes ∆G = ∆E - T∆S .
• A reaction can occur spontaneously only if the
value ∆G is negative for the given reaction.
 Exergonic and endergonic reactions

• In a given concentration of reactants and

products (considering the direction of reaction
reactants  products)
• If the value of ∆G is negative, the reaction is
called exergonic.
• If the value of ∆G is positive, the reaction is
called endergonic.
 Value of ∆G
• Value of ∆G(unit = kcal/mol) depends on
these factors-

• The concentration of reactants

• The concentration of products

• The standard free energy change (∆G0)

 Standard free energy change
• The standard free energy change (∆G0) is the
value of ∆G when both reactants and products
are present in 1mol/L concentration at the
start of reaction.
• In biological system, we calculate the ∆G0 at
pH 7.0 which is depicted as ∆G0’.
• ∆G0’= -RT logn K’eq , where R= gas constant and
K’eq is equilibrium constant at pH 7.0 .
 The reactions of biological system
• Only exergonic reactions can occur
spontaneously.
• Endergonic reactions cannot occur
spontaneously .
• Endergonic reaction can occur only when they
are coupled with exergonic reaction and the
net ∆G is negative.
 The universal exergonic reaction for
biological system
• In biological system, many reactions must take
place for different processes.
• So biological systems need exergonic reactions
that must be coupled with the endergonic
reactions.
• One such universal exergonic reaction(which
can be coupled with many types of endergonic
reactions) is ATP
= ADP + Pi (∆G = -7.3 kcal/mol)
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