negative sign

[Sophia Dinh 1D]

why is there a negative sign in front of n in the standard Gibbs energy equation?

[Jessa Maheras 4F]

I believe that there is a negative sign due to the loss of energy.

[Indy Bui 1l]

I believe it has to do with the relationship between E and delta G. When E is positive, delta G should be negative meaning it is spontaneous.

[Wilson 2E]

Energy = -work/Charge;
Rearrange this to get work = -E*Charge
From the Farraday's constant, Charge = n*F
Therefore work = -n*F*E
At constant temp and pressure, work max = deltaG
Therefore deltaG = -n*F*E

[Philip]

I think it's to show that energy is release or loss

[Ashley Alvarado 2C]

delta G*= -nFE
w(max)=-nFE
The system is doing work, so energy leaves the system resulting in -w.

[Jared_Yuge]

When E is positive it is spontaneous, so delta G needs to be negative

[Frankie Mele 3J]

Favorable redox reactions have positive voltage differences which results in E being a positive value and deltaG therefore being negative.

[Lesly Lopez 3A]

The negative sign is important because it is telling you that the reaction has released or lost energy. The relationship between E and
G is that when E is positive, G should be negative meaning the reaction is spontaneous.

[Samantha Lee 1A]

Yes! There is a negative sign in front of the n. The equation is

When the reaction is spontaneous, the is negative and is positive. In order for that to occur, there must be a negative sign in the equation.

[Kimiya Aframian IB]

why is there a negative sign in front of n in the standard Gibbs energy equation?

Hi! I think the negative sign in front of the n (mole value) is because it keeps the relationship between E, delta G, and spontaneity consistent. By this I mean that we need the E value to be positive when delta G is negative. Hope this helps!

[Dominic Benna 2E]

A spontaneous reaction has a positive delta E, yet a negative delta G. So, in order to relate the two to each other, the negative sign is added.

[Edison Tham 3D]

The system is doing work and based on the fact that ∆G = maximum work, this would mean that there would be a negative sign.