Which of the following is a characteristic of an exothermic chemical reaction?

The energy of the reactants is lower than the energy of the products.

The amount of energy released is equal to the activation energy.

The overall enthalpy of the system increases during the change.

Energy is released into the surroundings during this change.

The correct answer is The overall enthalpy of the system increases during the change.

Explanation:

Exothermic is type of chemical reaction that deals with the generation of energy in form of heat. Exothermic reactions are thermodynamically favorable because free energy change during exothermic reaction is highly negative.

Enthalpy is a state function which measures the heat content of the system. As there is a generation of heat from the reaction to the system in which the reaction is taking place, the heat content of the system increases which ultimately result in increasing the overall change of the enthalpy.

The overall enthalpy of the system increases during the change.

Explanation:

Enthalpy is the amount of energy contained in a substance. That is, the enthalpy is a thermodynamic quantity, symbolized by the capital letter H, whose variation expresses a measure of the amount of energy absorbed or transferred by a thermodynamic system, that is, the amount of energy that a system exchanges with its environment.

An exothermic reaction is one where energy flows out of the system. That is, exothermic reactions are those chemical reactions that when produced release or release energy in the form of heat, light or other forms of energy.

In an exothermic reaction, reactants have more energy compared to products. That is, the enthalpy of the products is less than that of the reagents. Being ΔH = Hproducts-Hreactive, ΔH is negative. Excess energy is released in the form of, for example, heat. So, the overall enthalpy of the system increases during the change.