What is the term for the energy needed to start a chemical reaction?

The energy required to initiate a chemical reaction is known as activation energy. This energy represents the minimum amount of energy that reactants must possess for the reaction to proceed. It is necessary to break the existing bonds in the reactants so that new bonds can form in the products. Activation energy is a crucial concept in chemical kinetics as it influences the rate at which reactions occur; higher activation energies often correspond to slower reaction rates since fewer molecules have sufficient energy to overcome this barrier at a given temperature.

Potential energy refers to the stored energy in a system due to its position or composition, but it does not specifically relate to the energy needed to initiate a reaction. Kinetic energy pertains to the energy of motion, and while it plays a role in the behavior of molecules during a reaction, it is not a measure of the energy required to start the reaction. Bond energy is the energy needed to break chemical bonds, but it does not capture the concept of the overall energy barrier that includes both the energy to break bonds in the reactants and the energy released when forming new bonds in the products.