Exergonic reactions are those in which the free energy of the final state is lower than the free energy of the initial state.

These reactions occur spontaneously. However, the rate of a spontaneous reaction may not be very great. This is because an energy hurdle must first be overcome.

This hurdle is called the activation energy of the reaction


By lowering the activation energy, more substrate is converted to product in a certain period of time. That is, the enzyme increases the rate of the reaction.

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