In chemistry, the rate law or rate equation for a chemical reaction is a mathematical equation that links the rate of forward reaction with the concentrations or pressures of the reactants and constant parameters (normally rate coefficients and partial reaction orders). For many reactions, the initial rate is given by a power law such as
where [\mathrm{A}] and [\mathrm{B}] express the concentration of the species \mathrm{A} and \mathrm{B}, usually in moles per liter (molarity, M). The exponents x and y are the partial orders of reaction for \mathrm{A} and \mathrm{B} and the overall reaction order is the sum of the exponents. These are often positive integers, but they may also be zero, fractional, or negative. The order of reaction is a number which quantifies the degree to which the rate of a chemical reaction depends on concentrations of the reactants. In other words, the order of reaction is the exponent to which the concentration of a particular reactant is raised. The constant k is the reaction rate constant or rate coefficient and at very few places velocity constant or specific rate of reaction. Its value may depend on conditions such as temperature, ionic strength, surface area of an adsorbent, or light irradiation. If the reaction goes to completion, the rate equation for the reaction rate applies throughout the course of the reaction.
Elementary (single-step) reactions and reaction steps have reaction orders equal to the stoichiometric coefficients for each reactant. The overall reaction order, i.e. the sum of stoichiometric coefficients of reactants, is always equal to the molecularity of the elementary reaction. However, complex (multi-step) reactions may or may not have reaction orders equal to their stoichiometric coefficients. This implies that the order and the rate equation of a given reaction cannot be reliably deduced from the stoichiometry and must be determined experimentally, since an unknown reaction mechanism could be either elementary or complex.
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
This course applies concepts from chemical kinetics and mass and energy balances to address chemical reaction engineering problems, with a focus on industrial applications. Students develop the abilit
This course provides students with an overview over the basics of environmental chemistry. This includes the chemistry of natural systems, as well as the fate of anthropogenic chemicals in natural sys
The course covers the principles of chemical kinetics, including differential rate laws, derivation of exact and approximate integral rate laws for common elementary and composite reactions, fundament
In chemistry, the law of mass action is the proposition that the rate of the chemical reaction is directly proportional to the product of the activities or concentrations of the reactants. It explains and predicts behaviors of solutions in dynamic equilibrium. Specifically, it implies that for a chemical reaction mixture that is in equilibrium, the ratio between the concentration of reactants and products is constant.
A substitution reaction (also known as single displacement reaction or single substitution reaction) is a chemical reaction during which one functional group in a chemical compound is replaced by another functional group. Substitution reactions are of prime importance in organic chemistry. Substitution reactions in organic chemistry are classified either as electrophilic or nucleophilic depending upon the reagent involved, whether a reactive intermediate involved in the reaction is a carbocation, a carbanion or a free radical, and whether the substrate is aliphatic or aromatic.
In chemistry, a reaction mechanism is the step by step sequence of elementary reactions by which overall chemical reaction occurs. A chemical mechanism is a theoretical conjecture that tries to describe in detail what takes place at each stage of an overall chemical reaction. The detailed steps of a reaction are not observable in most cases. The conjectured mechanism is chosen because it is thermodynamically feasible and has experimental support in isolated intermediates (see next section) or other quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the reaction.
Developing mathematical models for chemical reaction systems is essential for analysis, development, design, optimization and control of chemical, or biochemical industrial processes. Nowadays, more a
Tuberculosis is an ancient human disease affecting millions of people every year. The common causative agent, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is a peculiar pathogen that can persist in the host tissues fo
It has been more than 40 years since Fujishima and Honda demonstrated water splitting using TiO2, yet there is still no clear mechanism by which surface holes on TiO2 oxidize water. In this paper, we