## Units of Rate constant

Marvin Lu 1E
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### Units of Rate constant

How do we determine the units of a rate constant? The given rate constants in the book are L/mol*s but in the answers the rate constant is just s^-1.

Jake Ney lecture 1 discussion 1F
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### Re: Units of Rate constant

The units of rate constants vary by 1st, 2nd and Zero Order reactions. For First Order reactions the units are s-1 because when used in k[A] we get the correct units for d[A]/dt which is mol/L*s. For Second order reactions the units of k are in M-1s-1 because when used in the equation k[A]^2 we get the correct units (mol/L*s) for d[A]/dt.

Chem_Mod
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### Re: Units of Rate constant

The rate of a reaction is always in $\frac{M}{s}$ so we want a rate constant, which if we have certain inputs (concentrations), we get an answer in $\frac{M}{s}$. So in the case of a first order reaction where the reaction is dependent on the concentration of a single reactant, we have the units of M. Therefore, we want a rate constant that converts M to $\frac{M}{s}$. So our solution to that is to have the rate constant divide our concentration by seconds, represented as s-1.