In cellular respiration, is the oxidization of glucose to CO2 a spontaneous or non-spontaneous react

[m25]

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In cellular respiration, is the oxidization of glucose to CO2 a spontaneous or non-spontaneous reaction?

 

[Doctor Dream]

Just from a quick Wikipedia search it looks like it's spontaneous, with a delta G of -2880 kJ/mol.

 

[Zoey_imbmida]

Overall, it's spontaneous. But each step can be either spontaneous or non-spontaneous. For non-spontaneous ones, they are usually coupled with spontaneous ones. (e.g. ATP hydrolysis)

 

[NextStepTutor_1]

As @Zoey_imbmida said, some specific reactions within respiration can be spontaneous or non-spontanteous (think about the energy required to start glycolysis versus the products after the last step of glycolysis), but overall the process is spontaneous. If it weren't and we ended with a net loss of energy then it clearly wouldn't be a very good energy-enriching system to have.