Educator

Kinetics, Rate Laws, Reaction Mechanism

• Define rate of reaction for given reactions in terms of reactants and products

• Rate law as experimental observation of effects of changing concentrations on rates

• Order of reaction: exponent in rate law expression for component

• Overall order = sum of individual orders

• Integrated rate expressions for first and second order reactions; how to plot them

• First order: t versus ln[concn]; second order t versus 1/[concn]

• A reaction mechanism is a hypothesis to explain observed rate laws

• Elementary reactions are hypothetical; add together to get mechanism and overall rate law

• Learn to interpret some simple rate laws in terms of elementary reactions, for example RBr reacting with OH^- where R = ethyl; and tert-butyl

• Rate limiting or slowest step limits observed rate of a multi-stage reaction