The heat of combustion of a substance at 25 °C can be calculated from the enthalpy of formation (∆fH°) data in the table “Standard Thermodynamic Properties of Chemical Substances” in this section. We can write the general combustion reaction as
For a compound containing only carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, the reaction is simply
and the standard heat of combustion ∆cH°, which is defined as the negative of the enthalpy change for the reaction (i.e., the heat released in the combustion process), is given by
This equation applies if the reactants start in their standard states (25 °C and one atmosphere pressure) and the products return to the same conditions. The same equation applies to a compound containing another element if that element ends in its standard reference state (e.g., nitrogen, if the product is N2); in general, however, the exact products containing the other elements must be known in order to calculate the heat of combustion.
The following table gives the standard heat of combustion calculated in this manner for about 970 inorganic and organic compounds. Column definitions for the table are as follows.
Column heading | Definition |
Name | Name of chemical; given in alphabetical order |
Mol. Form. | Chemical formula; written in Hill format |
State | Physical state of substance being combusted; liq = liquid; cry = crystalline; gas = gas |
ΔfHº | Standard heat of combustion at 25 °C and 1 atm pressure, in units kJ mol-1 |
Name | Synonym | Mol. form. | Formula | CAS Reg. No. | Mol. wt. | State | ΔcHº/kJ mol-1 | ΔcHº/kJ g-1 |
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Acenaphthene | 1,2-Dihydroacenaphthylene | C12H10 | C12H10 | 83-32-9 | 154.207 | cry | 6222 | 40.35 |
Acenaphthylene | Acenaphthalene | C12H8 | C12H8 | 208-96-8 | 152.192 | cry | 6052 | 39.77 |
Acetaldehyde | Ethanal | C2H4O | CH3CHO | 75-07-0 | 44.052 | liq | 1167 | 26.48 |
Acetamide | Ethanamide | C2H5NO | CH3CONH2 | 60-35-5 | 59.067 | cry | 1185 | 20.06 |
Acetanilide | N-Phenylacetamide | C8H9NO | 103-84-4 | 135.163 | cry | 4225 | 31.26 | |
Acetic acid | Ethanoic acid | C2H4O2 | CH3COOH | 64-19-7 | 60.052 | liq | 874 | 14.56 |
Acetic anhydride | Acetyl acetate | C4H6O3 | C4H6O3 | 108-24-7 | 102.089 | liq | 1807 | 17.70 |
Acetone | 2-Propanone | C3H6O | (CH3)2CO | 67-64-1 | 58.079 | liq | 1790 | 30.81 |
Acetone cyanohydrin | C4H7NO | C4H7NO | 75-86-5 | 85.105 | liq | 2454 | 28.83 | |
Acetonitrile | Methyl cyanide | C2H3N | CH3CN | 75-05-8 | 41.052 | liq | 1256 | 30.61 |
Acetophenone | Methyl phenyl ketone | C8H8O | C6H5C=OCH3 | 98-86-2 | 120.149 | liq | 4149 | 34.53 |
Acetylene | Ethyne | C2H2 | HC≡CH | 74-86-2 | 26.037 | gas | 1300 | 49.94 |
2-(Acetyloxy)benzoic acid | Acetylsalicylic acid | C9H8O4 | C9H8O4 | 50-78-2 | 180.158 | cry | 3869 | 21.48 |
9-Acridinamine | Aminacrine | C13H10N2 | 90-45-9 | 194.231 | cry | 6704 | 34.52 | |
Acridine | Dibenzo[b,e]pyridine | C13H9N | 260-94-6 | 179.217 | cry | 6581 | 36.72 | |
Acrylamide | 2-Propenamide | C3H5NO | C3H5NO | 79-06-1 | 71.078 | cry | 1683 | 23.68 |
Acrylic acid | 2-Propenoic acid | C3H4O2 | C3H4O2 | 79-10-7 | 72.063 | liq | 1368 | 18.99 |
Acrylonitrile | Propenenitrile | C3H3N | CH2=CHCN | 107-13-1 | 53.063 | liq | 1756 | 33.10 |
Adenine | 1H-Purin-6-amine | C5H5N5 | C5H5N5 | 73-24-5 | 135.128 | cry | 2779 | 20.57 |