What Is Binding Energy?

Binding energy means that when an "object (system)" is composed of two or more parts, there must be mutual attraction between the component parts to make them combine together. If the components are separated to "infinity", of course, a certain amount of energy is required to provide the overcoming attraction, which requires work. The amount of work that needs to be done to explain how tightly the various components are combined is called the binding energy of the object. ^[1]

Binding energy means that when an "object (system)" is composed of two or more parts, there must be mutual attraction between the component parts to make them combine together. If the components are separated to "infinity", of course, a certain amount of energy is required to provide the overcoming attraction, which requires work. The amount of work that needs to be done to explain how tightly the various components are combined is called the binding energy of the object. ^[1]

Chinese name

Binding energy

Foreign name

binding energy

Features

Explain how tightly the components are combined

Binding Energy Concept Explained

The energy released when two or more free-state particles join together. The energy released when a free atom binds to a molecule is called chemical binding energy, and the energy released when a dispersed nucleus forms an atomic nucleus is called nuclear binding energy. Atomic nuclei are composed of nuclei combined by nuclear force. To separate them, energy is needed, which is the binding energy of nuclei.

Different "objects (systems)" have different binding energies. So when several objects react, the total binding energy may change. With the appropriate response, the changed total binding energy can be released. For example, the carbon dioxide molecule is composed of two oxygen atoms and one carbon atom, and the oxygen molecule is composed of two oxygen atoms. The former has greater binding energy than the latter. This shows that when carbon atoms and oxygen molecules react, the forces between the atoms do work in the reaction to release energy. When carbon is burned in the air to generate carbon dioxide, the binding energy is released in the form of thermal energy. This is the basic principle of carbon burning heat. Another example is that the nucleus is formed by nucleons (neutrons or protons) by virtue of strong mutual attraction (nuclear force) between each other, and has a large binding energy. The average binding energy of each nucleus in the nucleus, called the specific binding energy, is equal to the binding energy of the nucleus divided by the number of nucleons. ^[1]
When the nuclear binding state becomes tighter in some kind of nuclear reaction, the total binding energy becomes larger because of the work done by the nuclear force, and the work done is released in the form of nuclear energy. Because the nuclear force is much stronger than the force between the atoms in the molecule, the nuclear energy produced by a nuclear reaction of the same mass is more than a million times greater than the chemical energy produced by a chemical reaction. ^[1]

Specific energy

Binding energy is the energy released when several particles combine from a free state into a composite particle. The larger the binding energy value, the more stable the structure of the molecule (atom or nucleus).

Because the individual mass of several particles is greater than the mass of the composite particles, the mass loss generated is released in the form of energy, and the energy is the binding energy. According to the Einstein mass energy equation, the released energy E = mc ² ( c is the speed of light, m is the quality loss).

The fundamental reason that atoms can be combined into crystals is that the whole system has lower energy after the atoms are combined. Imagine combining scattered atoms (ions or molecules) to form a crystal. In this process, a certain amount of energy E will be released, that is, binding energy. If scattered atoms are used as the standard for measuring internal energy, E is the internal energy of the system after combining into crystals.

For a hydrogen atom (a single proton), the binding energy is zero, so nuclear fusion occurs. After that, the binding energy has been increasing, and iron has the largest average binding energy (so the iron nucleus is the easiest to break), and finally the average binding energy gradually decreases and the total binding energy gradually increases (because the number of particles increases). The luminescence of the star provides energy, and the star body becomes a "big iron ball" after burning.