Lessons in this chapter
- 1Measuring Reaction RatesMeasure chemical change over time and distinguish species disappearance, product appearance and normalised reaction rates.
- 2Rate Laws, Reaction Order and Rate ConstantsInfer concentration dependence from experiments and calculate rate constants with units appropriate to the observed order.
- 3Elementary Steps, Molecularity and MechanismsDistinguish measured reaction order from microscopic steps and use a catalytic cycle to connect mechanisms with observed rates.
- 4Zero-Order ReactionsDerive zero-order concentration and half-life relationships and explain why surface saturation can make rate independent of concentration.
- 5First-Order ReactionsDerive exponential concentration decay, interpret logarithmic graphs and recover reactant pressure from total-pressure measurements.
- 6Half-Life, Radioactive Decay and Pseudo-First-Order BehaviourConnect exponential decay to repeated halving intervals and explain why an excess reactant can hide a higher-order dependence.
- 7Temperature, Activation Energy and Energy DistributionsExplain temperature-dependent reaction rates through energy distributions and distinguish an activation barrier from the net energy change.
- 8Arrhenius Calculations and Experimental DataDerive logarithmic and two-temperature Arrhenius relationships, extract parameters from data and make conditional kinetic predictions.
- 9Catalysts and Effective CollisionsConnect alternative reaction pathways with collision energy, molecular orientation and the limits of simple collision theory.
- 10Chapter Summary and PracticeConnect measured rates, kinetic laws, mechanisms and temperature dependence through a complete chapter synthesis and mixed answered problems.