Abstract: This chapter discusses the rate laws for elementary reactions. The majority of kinetic processes involve more than one elementary step. The dependence of the rate of a chemical reaction upon the concentration of reactants is obtained experimentally. For any time instant, the reaction velocity can be calculated from the tangent to the curve of the variation of concentration of reactants or products as a function of time. Since the rate law may change during the course of a reaction, in principle this should be determined experimentally at various times of reaction, either to confirm that it is constant or to identify any changes. The determination of rates of reactions using this method of tangents is known as the differential method of determination of rate laws. Alternatively, descriptions of the time evolution of concentration can be obtained by mathematical integration of the kinetic laws rather than from the study of the variation of concentration with time. However, the fact that a mechanism is in agreement with the kinetic law does not mean that it is the correct mechanism for the reaction. The same kinetic law can, and frequently does, correspond to more than one possible mechanism. A mechanism is always a theoretical hypothesis of how a reaction occurs.
Publication Year: 2007
Publication Date: 2007-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 3
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