Which Step is Slower?

[lizzygaines1D]

when going through reaction mechanisms, how can you determine which step is slower?

[Ethan-Van To Dis2L]

The slower step is which ever reaction shows the rate law.

[Rana YT 2L]

The slow step is also the step with the largest activation energy

[Jesse_torres2H]

The slowest step in a reaction is the one with the higher activation energy.

[Yutian Zhao -1J]

As the slowest step always determines the overall reaction, find the elementary step whose rate law is the same as the overall reaction rate law, then that elementary step would be the slowest and be the rate determining step. Hope it helps.

[aaron tang 2K]

You can determine the slowest step by the determination rate or the part of the graph that requires the most activation energy.

[Mitch Mologne 1A]

Many times, a problem will give you mechanisms, and in turn tell you explicitly which step is the slow mechanism.

[Jennifer Ho 1K]

Usually the problem will tell you which step in the mechanism is the slow step, but if it asks for which step is slow, you just need to find which step matches the overall rate law.

[lizzygaines1D]

Okay this clarifies so much. thank you!