Molecularity

[Cecilia Jardon 1I]

In lecture, Lavelle mentioned how unimolecularity exists in an A--> P reaction. I was not able to catch when he said how does one reactant collide with itself. Can someone explain please.

[Aarti K Jain 1L]

A unimolecular reaction isn't about collision, but more about a rearrangement of the molecule. For example, decomposition or radioactive decay can occur of a single molecule without any collisions occurring simply because the molecule is breaking apart/rearranging itself into multiple molecules.

[mahika_nayak_3L]

Molecularity refers to the number of species in an elementary step. In a unimolecular reaction, there is only one species in the elementary step. The reaction can be unimolecular if there is a rearrangement of a single molecule that produces product.

[Lisa Werner 2F]

molecularity is based upon the number of types of reactant molecules in a reaction