Unit that diamond is forever. Kinetic studies not only help us to determine the speed or rate of a chemical reaction but also describe the conditions by which the reaction rates can be altered. The factors such as concentration, temperature, pressure and catalyst affect the rate of a reaction. At the macroscopic level, we are interested in amounts reacted or formed and the rates of their consumption or formation.
At the molecular level, the reaction mechanisms involving orientation and energy of molecules undergoing collisions, are discussed. In this Unit, we shall be dealing with average and instantaneous rate of reaction and the factors affecting these. Some elementary ideas about the collision theory of reaction rates are also given. However, in order to understand all these, let us first learn about the reaction rate.
Some reactions such as ionic reactions occur very fast, for example, precipitation of silver chloride occurs instantaneously by mixing of aqueous solutions of silver nitrate and sodium chloride. On the other hand, some reactions are very slow, for example, rusting of iron in the presence of air and moisture. Also there are reactions like inversion of cane sugar and hydrolysis of starch, which proceed with a moderate speed. Can you think of more examples from each category?
You must be knowing that speed of an automobile is expressed in terms of change in the position or distance covered by it in a certain period of time. Similarly, the speed of a reaction or the rate of a reaction can be defined as the change in concentration of a reactant or product in unit time. To be more specific, it can be expressed in terms of: (i) the rate of decrease in concentration of any one of the reactants, or (ii) the rate of increase in concentration of any one of the products. Consider a hypothetical reaction, assuming that the volume of the system remains constant.
R ® P One mole of the reactant R produces one mole of the product P. If [R] and [P] are the concentrations of R and P respectively at time t and [R] and [P] are their concentrations at time t then, D t t – t D [R] [R] – [R] D [P] = [P] – [P] The square brackets in the above expressions are used to express molar concentration. Rate of disappearance of R Decrease in concentration of R Time taken = − ( . )