In chemical kinetics, the rate (or velocity) of a reaction mechanism with several steps is often determined by the slowest step, known as the rate-determining step (RDS) or rate-limiting step. The experimental rate equation can help to identify which step is rate-determining.
In a reaction coordinate, the transition state with the highest energy is the rate-determining step of a given reaction.
The concept of the rate-determining step is very important to the optimization and understanding of many chemical processes such as catalysis and combustion.
Read more about Rate-determining Step: Example Reaction: NO2 + CO, Nucleophilic Substitution, Diffusion Control
Famous quotes containing the word step:
“Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which hears, however measured or far away.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)