What term refers to the amount of energy required for the liquid at its boiling point to become a gas?

The term that specifically refers to the energy needed for a liquid at its boiling point to transition into a gas is known as the heat of vaporization. This process involves overcoming the intermolecular forces that hold the liquid molecules together, allowing them to enter the gas phase. At the boiling point, the substance has enough thermal energy to facilitate this transition, but additional energy, in the form of heat, is necessary to fully convert the liquid into gas.

This concept is fundamental in thermodynamics and physical chemistry, as it helps explain the behavior of substances during phase changes. The heat of vaporization varies for different substances and is an important parameter in various applications, including distillation and understanding climate processes.

In contrast, the heat of fusion refers to the energy required for a solid to become a liquid, thermal energy is the total kinetic energy associated with the motion of particles in a substance, and enthalpy change is a more general term that describes the heat content of a system and may involve various processes, not just vaporization.