Energy barrier

[Deborah Cheng 1F]

We were told that slower steps have higher energy barriers, but why is that? Is there direct correlation with bond length?

[Deborah Cheng 1F]

Or is it the other way around, higher energy barriers take more time to overcome and therefore it is the slower step?

[KayleeMcCord1F]

I think the higher the energy barrier, the slower the step will be because the barrier is harder to overcome.

[SPandya1F]

An activation energy is a potential energy barrier that reactants have to get over in order to react. The higher this potential, the slower the reaction (the exact relationship is shown by the Arrhenius equation). It follows naturally that the step with the highest activation energy will be the slowest step.