Steady State and Pre Equilibrium Approach

[Sandeep Gurram 2E]

When do we know to use the steady state or pre equilibrium approach in determining whether a proposed elementary mechanism matches an observed rate law? Are there definitive clues to look out for?

Thank You

[Naiomi Desai]

In this class, particularly, we are only going to use the Pre-Equilibrium approach since, like Dr. Lavelle mentioned in class, the Steady State approach is very mathematically involving. This being said, it does not matter for most of the calculations which method you use as the outcome should come out the same (there are exceptions when the Pre-Equilibrium method would not work, but we do not have to worry about them). Hope I could clear some confusion :)