Chemical Kinetics: Reaction Rate As Reactivity
The rate of any given reaction,
Reactants → Products
is governed by the rate law:
where the rate is the change in the molar concentration in one second in the rate-determining step of the reaction (the slowest step), is the product of the molar concentration of all the reactants raised to the correct order, known as the reaction order, and k is the reaction constant, which is constant for one given set of circumstances (generally temperature and pressure) and independent of concentration. The greater the reactivity of a compound the higher the value of k and the higher the rate. For instance, if,
A+B → C+D
Then:
where n is the reaction order of A, m is the reaction order of B, n+m is the reaction order of the full reaction, and k is the reaction constant.
Read more about this topic: Reactivity (chemistry)
Famous quotes containing the words chemical, reaction and/or rate:
“Ants are so much like human beings as to be an embarrassment. They farm fungi, raise aphids as livestock, launch armies into war, use chemical sprays to alarm and confuse enemies, capture slaves, engage in child labor, exchange information ceaselessly. They do everything but watch television.”
—Lewis Thomas (b. 1913)
“Christianity was only a very strong and singularly well-timed Salvation Army movement that happened to receive help from an unusual and highly dramatic incident. It was a Puritan reaction in an age when, no doubt, a Puritan reaction was much wanted; but like all sudden violent reactions, it soon wanted reacting against.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)
“Strange that the vanity which accompanies beauty—excusable, perhaps, when there is such great beauty, or at any rate understandable—should persist after the beauty was gone.”
—Mary A. [Elizabeth, Countess Von] Arnim (1866–1941)