Textbook 7.9

[Shreya Patel- 2D]

Hi everyone,
I do not understand the textbook solution to this problem. Can someone explain, please?

[ColmConnolly3D]

What part do you not understand? Iĺl try to give a somewhat broad explanation but lmk if you need help with a specific part.

Basically, it is saying that for the first proposed mechanism, since water is not present in the bottleneck step, water's concentration will not affect the rate at which the reaction progresses. However, for the second proposed mechanism, water is present in the rate-limiting step so a reaction in a dilute sucrose solution would proceed faster than one in a concentrated sucrose solution, in a manner consistent with first-order dependence on water.

Hope this helps!