In chemistry

Chemistry

Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

, activation energy is a term introduced in 1889 by the Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius

Svante Arrhenius

Svante August Arrhenius was a Swedish scientist, originally a physicist, but often referred to as a chemist, and one of the founders of the science of physical chemistry...

 that is defined as the energy that must be overcome in order for a chemical reaction

Chemical reaction

A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the transformation of one set of chemical substances to another. Chemical reactions can be either spontaneous, requiring no input of energy, or non-spontaneous, typically following the input of some type of energy, such as heat, light or electricity...

 to occur. Activation energy may also be defined as the minimum energy required to start a chemical reaction. The activation energy of a reaction is usually denoted by E_a, and given in units of kilojoules per mole

Joule per mole

The joule per mole is an SI derived unit of energy per amount of material. Energy is measured in joules, and the amount of material is measured in moles....

.

Activation energy can be thought of as the height of the potential barrier (sometimes called the energy barrier) separating two minima of potential energy

Potential energy

In physics, potential energy is the energy stored in a body or in a system due to its position in a force field or due to its configuration. The SI unit of measure for energy and work is the Joule...

 (of the reactants and products of a reaction).