| Abstract from DBPedia | A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the chemical transformation of one set of chemical substances to another. Classically, chemical reactions encompass changes that only involve the positions of electrons in the forming and breaking of chemical bonds between atoms, with no change to the nuclei (no change to the elements present), and can often be described by a chemical equation. Nuclear chemistry is a sub-discipline of chemistry that involves the chemical reactions of unstable and radioactive elements where both electronic and nuclear changes can occur. The substance (or substances) initially involved in a chemical reaction are called reactants or reagents. Chemical reactions are usually characterized by a chemical change, and they yield one or more products, which usually have properties different from the reactants. Reactions often consist of a sequence of individual sub-steps, the so-called elementary reactions, and the information on the precise course of action is part of the reaction mechanism. Chemical reactions are described with chemical equations, which symbolically present the starting materials, end products, and sometimes intermediate products and reaction conditions. Chemical reactions happen at a characteristic reaction rate at a given temperature and chemical concentration. Typically, reaction rates increase with increasing temperature because there is more thermal energy available to reach the activation energy necessary for breaking bonds between atoms.Reactions may proceed in the forward or reverse direction until they go to completion or reach equilibrium. Reactions that proceed in the forward direction to approach equilibrium are often described as spontaneous and reduce the free energy if they occur at constant temperature and pressure. Non-spontaneous reactions require an input of energy to go forward (examples include charging a battery driven by an external electrical power source, or photosynthesis driven by absorption of electromagnetic radiation usually in the form of sunlight). A reaction may be classified as redox in which oxidation and reduction occur or nonredox in which there is no oxidation and reduction occurring. Most simple redox reactions may be classified as a combination, decomposition, or single displacement reaction. Different chemical reactions are used during chemical synthesis in order to obtain the desired product. In biochemistry, a consecutive series of chemical reactions (where the product of one reaction is the reactant of the next reaction) form metabolic pathways. These reactions are often catalyzed by protein enzymes. Enzymes increase the rates of biochemical reactions, so that metabolic syntheses and decompositions impossible under ordinary conditions can occur at the temperature and concentrations present within a cell. The general concept of a chemical reaction has been extended to reactions between entities smaller than atoms, including nuclear reactions, radioactive decays and reactions between elementary particles, as described by quantum field theory.化学反応（かがくはんのう、英語: chemical reaction）は、化学変化の事、もしくは化学変化が起こる過程の事をいう。化学変化とは1つ以上の化学物質が別の1つ以上の化学物質へと変化する事で、反応前化学物質を構成する原子同士が結合されたり、逆に結合が切断されたり、あるいは化学物質の分子から電子が放出されたり、逆に電子を取り込んだりする。広義には溶媒が溶質に溶ける変化や原子のある同位体が別の同位体に変わる変化、液体が固体に変わる変化等も化学変化という。 化学変化の前後では、化学物質の分子を構成する原子の結合が変わって別の分子に変化する事はあるが、原子そのものが別の原子番号の原子に変わる事はない（ただし原子間の電子の授受や同位体の変化はある）。この点で原子そのものが別の原子に変化する原子核反応とは大きく異なる。 化学反応では反応前の化学物質を反応物(reactant)、反応後の化学物質を生成物(product)といい、その過程は化学反応式で表記される。例えば反応物である（塩酸）と（水酸化ナトリウム）が化学反応して生成物である（水分子）と（食塩）ができあがる状況を示した化学反応式は と表記される。 (Source: http://dbpedia.org/resource/Chemical_reaction) |
