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Chemical Kinetics

Chemical kinetics is the branch of physical chemistry concerned with understanding the rates of chemical reactions. It contrasts with thermodynamics, which describes the direction of processes but not their rates. Kinetic studies provide evidence of chemical reaction mechanisms and can help choose conditions favoring specific reaction paths, which has practical applications in commercial processes. A chemical reaction involves breaking and forming of bonds and rearrangement of electrons and atoms. Investigating reaction rates over different conditions can reveal whether reactions occur in single or multiple steps. While kinetics provides information about mechanisms, some doubt always remains about fully establishing a specific mechanism.

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64 views2 pages

Chemical Kinetics

Chemical kinetics is the branch of physical chemistry concerned with understanding the rates of chemical reactions. It contrasts with thermodynamics, which describes the direction of processes but not their rates. Kinetic studies provide evidence of chemical reaction mechanisms and can help choose conditions favoring specific reaction paths, which has practical applications in commercial processes. A chemical reaction involves breaking and forming of bonds and rearrangement of electrons and atoms. Investigating reaction rates over different conditions can reveal whether reactions occur in single or multiple steps. While kinetics provides information about mechanisms, some doubt always remains about fully establishing a specific mechanism.

Uploaded by

Fritzie Andrea Tirol
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© © All Rights Reserved
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chemical kinetics, the branch of 

physical chemistry that is concerned with


understanding the rates of chemical reactions. It is to be contrasted
with thermodynamics, which deals with the direction in which a process occurs but in
itself tells nothing about its rate. Thermodynamics is time’s arrow, while chemical
kinetics is time’s clock. Chemical kinetics relates to many aspects
of cosmology, geology, biology, engineering, and even psychology and thus has far-
reaching implications. The principles of chemical kinetics apply to purely physical
processes as well as to chemical reactions.

One reason for the importance of kinetics is that it provides evidence for the
mechanisms of chemical processes. Besides being of intrinsic scientific interest,
knowledge of reaction mechanisms is of practical use in deciding what is the most
effective way of causing a reaction to occur. Many commercial processes can take place
by alternative reaction paths, and knowledge of the mechanisms makes it possible to
choose reaction conditions that favour one path over others.

A chemical reaction is, by definition, one in which chemical substances are transformed


into other substances, which means that chemical bonds are broken and formed so that
there are changes in the relative positions of atoms in molecules. At the same time, there
are shifts in the arrangements of the electrons that form the chemical bonds. A
description of a reaction mechanism must therefore deal with the movements and
speeds of atoms and electrons. The detailed mechanism by which a chemical process
occurs is referred to as the reaction path, or pathway.

The vast amount of work done in chemical kinetics has led to the conclusion that some
chemical reactions go in a single step; these are known as elementary reactions. Other
reactions go in more than one step and are said to be stepwise, composite, or complex.
Measurements of the rates of chemical reactions over a range of conditions can show
whether a reaction proceeds by one or more steps. If a reaction is stepwise, kinetic
measurements provide evidence for the mechanism of the individual elementary steps.
Information about reaction mechanisms is also provided by certain nonkinetic studies,
but little can be known about a mechanism until its kinetics has been investigated. Even
then, some doubt must always remain about a reaction mechanism. An investigation,
kinetic or otherwise, can disprove a mechanism but can never establish it with absolute
certainty.
Britannica Quiz
 Types of Chemical Reactions
Reaction rate
The rate of a reaction is defined in terms of the rates with which the products are formed
and the reactants (the reacting substances) are consumed. For chemical systems it is
usual to deal with the concentrations of substances, which is defined as the amount of
substance per unit volume. The rate can then be defined as the concentration of a
substance that is consumed or produced in unit time. Sometimes it is more convenient
to express rates as numbers of molecules formed or consumed in unit time.
The half-life
A useful rate measure is the half-life of a reactant, which is defined as the time that it
takes for half of the initial amount to undergo reaction. For a special type of kinetic
behaviour (first-order kinetics; see below Some kinetic principles), the half-life is
independent of the initial amount. A common and straightforward example of a half-life
independent of the initial amount is radioactive substances. Uranium-238, for example,
decays with a half-life of 4.5 billion years; of an initial amount of uranium, half of that
amount will have decayed in that period of time. The same behaviour is found in many
chemical reactions.

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