Does everything have a chemical energy store?
In: Physics
Chemical energy comes from breaking a weak, unstable bond and forming a strong, stable bond. If a molecule already has a very stable bond, it’s very hard to extract energy from it. That doesn’t mean there’s no energy there, just that you can’t use it.
Think of it like water behind a dam. The farther the water can fall, the more energy you can get from it. If your dam is very tall, you can get a lot of energy. Once the water reaches the ocean, it can’t fall anymore unless you add energy to lift it back up, like waves or the tide or the water cycle.
The water in the ocean may be really high above the bottom, but it can’t *fall* so you can’t get that energy.
Some molecules, like hydrogen peroxide are really unstable. Oxygen doesn’t like to touch like that. Water, on the other hand, is very stable, because oxygen *really* likes to grab onto other atoms. If you add sodium, though, it will rip apart the water to make an even more stable molecule, releasing energy.
Eventually, you’re going to get to a molecule that’s too stable and the only way to get energy out is to put more in.
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