Rate Determining Step
Moderators: Chem_Mod, Chem_Admin
-
- Posts: 66
- Joined: Thu Dec 17, 2020 12:17 am
-
- Posts: 116
- Joined: Wed Sep 30, 2020 9:40 pm
- Been upvoted: 1 time
Re: Rate Determining Step
If you are given the overall rate law expression then the reactants in the expression should match the reactants in the slow step, unless its an intermediate.
-
- Posts: 115
- Joined: Wed Sep 30, 2020 9:55 pm
Re: Rate Determining Step
I agree, if the slow step is not explicitly given to you then I would assume we would be given the overall rate law. Then, you can just form the elementary rate laws until you find one that matches the overall rate law. This will probably involve using the pre-equilibrium method, and you can substitute out any intermediates in the elementary step's rate law to obtain your final answer.
-
- Posts: 52
- Joined: Wed Feb 05, 2020 12:15 am
Re: Rate Determining Step
if you are given reaction rates and observe them, you should be able to tell which has the slowest rate, and this would be the rate-determining step because this step must be completed before the reaction can be complete.
-
- Posts: 121
- Joined: Wed Sep 30, 2020 9:39 pm
- Been upvoted: 2 times
Re: Rate Determining Step
Usually, the problem will tell you which step is the slow step. If a step is designated to be the slow step, that automatically means that that step will be the rate-determining step. You can then find the rate law accordingly. Sometimes a problem will give you an overall rate law and ask you to determine the slow step. In this case, you would have to test out all of the steps to see which one would match the rate law and determine the slow step that way.
Return to “Arrhenius Equation, Activation Energies, Catalysts”
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests