Question

!!!PLEASE HELP ME WITH THIS!!! WILL MARK AS BRAINLIEST AND WILL GIVE 30 PTS!! PLEASE ANSWER HONESTLY, DON"T ANSWER JUST TO GET POINTS. PLEASE!!
1. This energy diagram is for the thermal decomposition of solid mercury (II) oxide (also known as mercuric oxide) into liquid mercury and oxygen gas. • Write a balanced equation for the reaction. • Explain what feature is shown by the arrow labeled (a). • Using chemical symbols and dashed lines (this can be done with type), draw what the activated complex or transition state might look like. • Is this reaction exothermic or endothermic? Explain.

Answer 1

1. Balanced Equation of the Reaction is as follow,

                                       2 HgO  --------->  2 Hg  +  O₂

2. The arrow labelled as a indicate ACTIVATION ENERGY. It is the minimum amount of energy required by the reactants to convert into products. This energy is obtained by providing heat to the system.

3. Transition State or Activated Complex:
I am trying to draw possible transition state. It could be the correct one and can be confirmed by theoretical computational study.

                                    Hg------O------O------Hg

Here the dashed lines mean that the bond between Hg and O are breaking and their length is increasing and the dashed line between oxygen atoms depict that the bond length is decreasing and bond formation is taking place.

4. This reaction is Endothermic because the energy of reactants is smaller than the energy of products. So, the difference in energies is obtained by providing heat to the system.

Note: I have answered these questions with respect to following energy profile.