KINETICS: RATES OF CHEMICAL REACTIONS

[MH5; Chapter 11]

• Kinetics is a study of how quickly a chemical reaction proceeds

(the rate of the reaction) and the factors that affect that rate.
• What are the factors that affect the rate of a reaction?

1) Nature of Reactants.
Some reactions are faster than others....

EXAMPLES:
H2 (g) + F2 (g) ! 2HF (g) explosively fast

2 Fe (s) + 3/2 O2 (g) ! Fe2O3 (s) months; this is rusting..

C (graphite) ! C (diamond) undetectably slow

2) Concentration of Reactants. Increasing reactant concentrations

usually speeds up the rate of reaction.

3) Temperature. Reactions generally go faster as the temperature is

increased.

4) Presence of a catalyst; a catalyst increases the rate of a reaction

without being consumed in the reaction.

– 284 –
• The rate of reaction is a positive quantity that describes how the
concentration of a reactant or a product varies with time.

• Consider the reaction: N2 + 3H2 ! 2NH3

• We could define rate in terms of [ N2 ], [ H2 ] or [ NH3 ].

• But [ H2 ] will decrease three times as fast as that of N2 while

[ NH3 ] will increase twice as fast as that of N2 decreases...

• We express the rate of concentration change:

- ∆ [ N2 ] = - 1 ∆ [ H2 ] = + 1 ∆ [ NH3 ]
∆t 3 ∆t 2 ∆t

• By defining rate of reaction in this way, it is independent of the

species we are using to track the reaction.

– 285 –
Concentration Effects [MH5; 11.2]

• The effects of concentration on the rate of a reaction are

described by Rate Laws.
• For the general reaction:

A + B + C ... ! products

the Rate Law is:

Rate = k [ A ]a [ B ]b [ C ]c ...

• Rate may be measured by the rate of production of products, or

the rate of disappearance of reactants.
• [ A ], [ B ] etc. are the concentrations of components A, B etc., in
units of mol LG1
• a, b, c.... are the exponents of each reactant in the Rate Law.
They are NOT the coefficients of A, B, C in the balanced equation.
• k is the Specific Rate Constant of that reaction at a particular
temperature.

• The exponents a, b, c can only be found by experiment.

• The exponent is called the order of the reaction; it relates changes
in reactant concentration the changes in rate.
• They are often whole numbers, but not always......

• If: a = 1, the reaction is First Order in [ A ]

a = 2, the reaction is Second Order in [ A ]
a = 0, the reaction is Zero Order in [ A ]; that is, the rate of
reaction is independent of the concentration of component A
• Exponent values higher than 2 are seldom seen; sometimes you will
see an order of ½, or even of - ½......

– 286 –
EXAMPLE: For the gas phase reaction;

2 H2 + 2 NO ! 2 H2O + N2

the rate law is Rate = k [ H2 ]1 [ NO ]2

• The reaction is first order in [ H2 ] and second order in [ NO ].

• The overall order of this reaction is three; (the sum of all the
individual orders).
• Note that the products do not (usually) appear in the rate law.

• How do we find the exponents from an experiment?

EXAMPLE:
Consider some data for the reaction:
A + B ! products

Run [ A ] mol LG1 [ B ] mol LG1 Rate, mol LG1 sG1

i) 0.001 0.002 5 × 10—4
ii) 0.002 0.002 10 × 10—4
iii) 0.001 0.004 20 × 10—4

• Determine: i) The Rate Law

ii) The Specific Rate Constant, k

• The strategy is:

a) vary one concentration at a time
b) evaluate the exponents separately
c) combine the exponents into a rate law
d) substitute one data set to find k

– 287 –
• The Rate Law is:

– 288 –
• Now find a numerical value for k:

• Units for k:

• Once the rate law is known, we can predict the rate of reaction
under other concentration conditions at the same temperature.

• Suppose [ A ] = 0.03 and [ B ] = 0.05 mol LG1

Rate =

– 289 –
• What if the data are not easily interpreted to find the order ??
• As it is almost impossible to prepare reaction mixtures with
concentrations that are exact multiples, we end up with data such
as....

Run [ A ] mol LG1 Rate

i) 1.78 × 10G2 6.00 × 10G5
ii) 2.85 × 10G2 7.59 × 10G5

What is the exponent of [ A ] in the rate law ?

Let the exponent of [ A ] be ‘x’ ;

– 290 –
• If several data points are available (as in an experiment), plotting a
graph is often a more accurate method of determining reaction
order:

• Does the rate of reaction change as a function of time, t ?

• Yes, the rate decreases as the reactants are consumed.
• Eventually all the reactants are consumed, and the reaction stops -
or appears to stop.
• The rate we use in calculations is always the initial rate.

– 291 –
• How could we measure initial rate ?
• Consider a reaction in which a gas is evolved; we are measuring the
volume of gas produced as a function of time.

• The initial rate of gas evolution will be the slope of this line at t = 0.

• This corresponds to the initial reactant concentrations.

• The slope of the line is calculated from the tangent slope
[MH5; Figure 11.2]

– 292 –
First Order Reactions [MH5; 11.3]

• Consider the reaction: A ! products

• This reaction is found to be first order in [A];

the Rate Law is: Rate = k [ A ]

• As the reaction proceeds, the [A] decreases......

• At the beginning of the reaction t (time) = t0 .
• At t0 , [A] = [A]0

• After some amount of time (t) has passed, [A] = [A]t .

• So, Rate = k [A]t at some time t.

• Because Rate of Reaction is really the Rate of Change of [A];

• If we integrate this, we get:

• This is the Integrated Rate Law for a first-order reaction; it

relates reactant concentration to time.
• The example on p. 287 showed how to determine the Rate Law

– 293 –
 (which tells you the order of the reaction with respect to a certain
reactant) using the initial Rate of Reaction.
• What if you don’t know the initial rate ? Is there another way to
determine the order of the reaction ?
• We can experimentally measure the [A] at various times.....then we
can plot the data.
• Integrated Rate Laws can be rearranged into the form of an
equation for a straight line: y = m x + b
• m is the slope of the line and b is the y - intercept.

• For a first order reaction:

– 294 –
EXAMPLE 1:
The reaction: M ! products is known to be first order in [M].
The initial [M] is 0.625 M. After 10.5 minutes, [M] = 0.426 M.
What will [M] be after one hour?

– 295 –
 The Concept of Half - Life for First Order Reactions
[ MH5; page 292]

• A Half-Life is the time taken for half the initial concentration of

the reactant, A, to be consumed.

• At this stage in the reaction:

– 296 –
• This process is called Exponential Decay.

• When is reaction “complete” ? Never !!

• The decay graph approaches to axis x = 0, but never reaches it.
• Radioactive decay always proceeds according to first-order kinetics.

– 297 –
A Different Approach to Half Life.......
• We have said that the half life (or t1/2) is the time required to
reduce the reactant concentration to half of its original value.
• For a first order reaction, the half life is constant; it only depends
on the rate constant, k, and not on the concentration of the
reactant.

• We will follow a reaction for a few half lives...

• After 1 half life, the fraction of the reactant remaining will be

0.50 = (0.5) 1
• After 2 half lives, the fraction of the reactant remaining will be
0.25 = (0.5) 2
• After 3 half lives, the fraction of the reactant remaining will be
0.125 = (0.5) 3

• So......we can make a general statement that says:

• The fraction of the reactant remaining after n half lives = (0.5) n ,

where “n” is the number of half lives.

• In order to use this statement effectively, we need to know how

many half lives have elapsed at any given time in a reaction.

• The # of half lives = The time elapsed

The length of the half life

– 298 –
EXAMPLE 2:
A first order reaction has a half life of 11 minutes.
i) What fraction of the reactant remains after one hour?

ii) What fraction has decomposed?

– 299 –
• The fraction of the reactant remaining can be applied to an actual
starting amount of reactant to determine the actual amount
remaining (or the amount that has been used up).

EXAMPLE 3:
The half life of the first order reaction:
N2O5 (g) ! 2 NO2 (g) + ½ O2 (g)
has been found to be 120 sec at 67 o C.
If the initial concentration of N2O5 is 0.850 M, calculate the
concentration of N2O5 after 5 minutes have elapsed.
Also calculate the concentration of NO2 at this time.

– 300 –
– 301 –
EXAMPLE 4:
40
The 0.012% naturally abundant potassium isotope K is radioactive
with t½ = 1.26 × 109 years.
i) What is the rate constant for decay of 40K ?

40
ii) Out of an initial 10 g of K, how much will remain after 1010 years ?

40
iii) After what time would 1% of a sample of K remain ?

– 302 –
Zero Order Reactions [MH5; p. 293]

• For zero - order reactions:

• Rearrange the integrated rate law into the form of the equation for
a straight line.......

• A plot of [A]t vs time yields a straight line with a slope of -k.

– 303 –
Second-Order Reactions [MH5; page 293 - 294]

• For second-order reactions:

• This is the Integrated Rate Law for a second-order reaction.

• This can also be rearranged into the form of the equation of
straight line.....

– 304 –
• What is the half life ? at t½

k t½ = so t½ =

• t½ depends on the initial concentration [A]o

• No half-life can be calculated using “k” for second-order reactions
as it could for first-order reactions.

EXAMPLE 1:
For the reaction: D ! products, the Rate Law is: Rate = k [D]2.
If the concentration of D falls from 0.890 M to 0.560 M in 12 minutes,
what is the half life of the reaction?

– 305 –
EXAMPLE 2:
Ammonium cyanate, NH4NCO, in water rearranges to produce urea, a
common fertilizer, (NH2)2CO:

NH4NCO ! (NH2)2CO

The rearrangement is a second order reaction. It takes 11.6 hours for

the concentration of NH4NCO to go from 0.250M to 0.0841 M.

a) What is k for the reaction ?

b) What is the half life of the reaction when NH4NCO is 0.100 M ?

c) How fast is a 0.839 M solution being changed to urea ?

– 306 –
Activation Energy [ MH5; 11.4 ]

• Generally speaking, reaction rate increases when the temperature

increases.
• Food spoilage is a practical example of this; refrigerated leftovers
“keep” longer than if we left them at room temperature.......the
cooler temperature slows the reactions which contribute to food
spoilage.
• Why is this so? It can be explained using Collision Theory.

• Molecules must collide for reaction to occur, and have enough energy
on collision to overcome an activation energy barrier.
• Molecules must also be correctly “oriented” when they collide for a
reaction to occur.
• For a very short time, colliding molecules remain stuck together as
an activated complex.
• This then falls apart, giving either products or unchanged reactants.
• Most collisions are unproductive; they do not result in any reaction.

• For the general reaction:

A + B ! C + D

we plot reaction coordinate against energy......

– 307 –
• Ea is the activation energy of this reaction.
• It is the minimum energy which molecules must possess on collision
in order for reaction to occur.

• Remember that, even if molecules have this energy, most collisions

do not result in reaction because of an unfavourable orientation of
the molecules.

• So, how does increasing the temperature increase reaction rate?

– 308 –
Effect of Temperature : The Arrhenius Equation
[MH5; 11.5]

• As temperature increases, molecules have more energy and move

faster.
• The fraction of the molecules having an energy greater than Ea is:

where R is the gas constant; units 8.314 J KG1molG1

• This is incorporated into the specific rate constant for the reaction:

where A is a constant for the reaction.

• So the complete rate law is:

!Ea/RT
Rate = A e [ A ]a [ B ]b ...

and the value of Ea may be found by measuring the reaction rate at

different temperatures.

– 309 –
• In studying a reaction, suppose we find Rate(1) at T1 and Rate(2) at
T2 with other conditions being kept constant:

dividing:

• All other things being equal, changes in rate are entirely due to
changes in k which result from changes in temperature, provided
concentrations are kept constant.
• Take natural logarithms:

And rearrange:

– 310 –
• We can use this relationship to determine rate changes due to
temperature changes; also to calculate Ea.

EXAMPLE 1:
When the temperature of a reaction is increased from 20 to 30EC, the
rate increases from 1.50 to 2.40 mol LG1 sG1. Calculate the activation
energy, Ea , for this reaction.

– 311 –
EXAMPLE 2:
A reaction has Ea = 50.0 kJ mol G1. If the specific rate constant (k)
for this reaction is 0.00365 s G1 at 25 o C, what will the value of the
specific rate constant be at 100EC ?

Another way to word this question: By what factor does the rate
increase ?

– 312 –
Some things to note:
• Be very careful to have Ea in energy units J, not kJ; because 8.314
is J molG1 KG1
• Remember to convert EC to K
• Remember that Ea must be positive: if you get a
negative answer, you have two terms in the equation reversed.

• As we saw previously, we could determine the Activation Energy by

plotting a graph........

!Ea/RT
k = A e

– 313 –
Effect of a Catalyst [ MH5; 11.6]
• A catalyst speeds up a reaction by providing an alternate pathway
with a lower activation energy.
• It is not consumed in the reaction.

– 314 –
• Suppose Ea changes from Ea(1) to Ea(2) when a catalyst is used.
• The temperature is kept constant.

– 315 –
EXAMPLE 1:
A catalyst lowers Ea for a reaction from 85.0 to 70.5 kJ molG1 at 27EC.
If the rate of the uncatalyzed reaction is 2.00 x 10 —3 mol L—1s —1, what
is the rate of the catalyzed reaction ?

– 316 –
EXAMPLE 2:
A reaction has Ea = 60.0 kJ molG1 at 27EC. A catalyst speeds up
reaction by a factor 106 . What is Ea with the catalyst present ?

– 317 –
Things to Note....
• A catalyst cannot decrease the rate of a reaction; the original
(uncatalyzed) pathway is always available.
• A catalyst has no effect on ∆H for a reaction.
• A catalyst cannot alter the final equilibrium position; both forward
and reverse reactions speed up.
• A catalyst enables the system to reach equilibrium more rapidly.
• The factor by which the reactions speed up depends only on the
change in Ea and this is the same for both reactions.

• At equilibrium, the reaction is proceeding at the same rate in each

direction, where kf and kr are the rate constants for the forward
and reverse reactions respectively.
• What happens when a catalyst is added ? Both rates are increased,
as Ea(f) and Ea(r) are both reduced...

– 318 –
Reaction Mechanisms [ MH5; 11.7 ]

• What is actually happening at the molecular level when reaction

occurs ? Which atoms are colliding to produce the reaction?
• A reaction mechanism describes the sequence of reactions that the
molecules follow.......
• The simplest example is one where there is only one step involved......

CO (g) + NO2 (g) ! NO (g) + CO2 (g) (Temp > 600 K)

• What happens if the temperature is lower than 600 K? The reaction

takes place in two steps:

Step 1) NO2 (g) + NO2 (g) ! NO3 (g) + NO (g) (slow)

Step 2) CO (g) + NO3 (g) ! CO2 + NO2 (g) (fast)

Overall:

• Even though the route is different, the eventual destination is the

same.....the overall reaction does not change.

• The Rate Laws for these two processes are different though.....

• At High Temperatures: Rate = k [CO] [NO2]

• At Low Temperatures: Rate = k [NO2] 2

• The Rate Law (and therefore reaction order) depends on the

mechanism by which the reaction occurs.
• The Rate Law can be determined from the reaction mechanism.

– 319 –
• A mechanism may consist of several steps; each one is called an
elementary step.
• The term molecularity may be used to describe the number of
reactant molecules participating in each step.
• A unimolecular process is one that involves only one molecule and no
collision occurs; for example;

NO2CR (g) ! NO2(g) + CR (g)

• In a bimolecular reaction, two molecules must collide for reaction to

occur; these molecules may be identical or different.....

NO2CR (g) + CR (g) ! NO2 (g) + CR2 (g)

• In an elementary step, the rate of that step is equal to the rate

constant (k) multiplied by the concentration of each reactant
molecule.
• The rate of collision (and therefore, rate of reaction) is directly
proportional to the concentration of each reactant.......

Rate Laws for General Elementary Steps

Elementary Step Molecularity Rate Law

– 320 –
• Consider the reactions involving NO2CR (g) from the previous page......
• These reactions make up the reaction mechanism for the
decomposition of NO2CR (g).

Step 1) NO2CR (g) ! NO2(g) + CR (g)

Step 2) NO2CR (g) + CR (g) ! NO2 (g) + CR2 (g)

• What is the Rate Law for Step 1) ?

• What is the Rate Law for Step 2) ?

• What is the overall reaction ?

• The Rate Law for the overall reaction ?

• The CR (g) that appeared in both steps is called a reaction

intermediate; a species that is formed and then consumed.
• Intermediate species never appear in the overall reaction, and
therefore, do not appear in the Rate Law for the overall reaction.

• So how do we go about determining the rate law from the reaction

mechanism ?

– 321 –
• First, we need a bit more information about the elementary steps.
• Do any of the steps involve an equilibrium between reactants and
products, and at what stage in the mechanism do they occur?

• In a mechanism there will always be one step that is slower than all
the others; this is known as the Slow, or Rate Determining Step.
• This step is ultimately responsible for the rate of the overall
reaction.

• The following mechanism give us the information we need.....

Step 1) NO (g) + NO (g) º N2O2 (g) (Fast)

Step 2) N2O2(g) + O2 (g) ! 2 NO2 (g) (Slow)

• We could write the Rate Law for each of these elementary steps...
• BUT, the Rate Law for any reaction must be written in terms of the
Overall Reaction, which is:

• Rate Law for the overall reaction:

• Are there any reaction intermediates ? It’s important to be able to

recognize these!

– 322 –
• To determine the rate law from a mechanism, we always begin by
writing the rate law for the slow, or rate determining step.

• Compare this to the form of the rate law for the overall reaction; it
probably won’t match! What is the problem species ?

• Look at the step(s) occurring before the slow step.......one of them

must contain the N2O2 intermediate.
• Is this step an equilibrium? For an equilibrium:

• Rearrange to isolate the intermediate species......

– 323 –
• Now substitute for the intermediate in the rate law for the slow
step:

• The rate law determined from this mechanism is consistent with the
experimentally observed Rate Law.
• It is not usually possible to “prove” that a suggested mechanism is
correct; only that it is consistent.
• However, an equilibrium where two molecules associate to give a
short-lived, reactive intermediate such as N2O2 above is quite
common.

– 324 –
• What happens if a reactant has to dissociate for reaction to occur ?

EXAMPLE:
Synthesis of phosgene (the overall reaction):

CR2 (g) + CO (g) ! COCR2(g)

Suppose the reaction occurs in 3 steps:

1) CR2 (g) ! CR (g) + CR (g)

2) CO (g) + CR (g) ! COCR (g)

3) COCR (g) + CR2 (g) ! COCR2 (g) + CR (g)

What rate law would be expected IF:

(i) 1 is slow, and 2 and 3 are fast.

• Over reasonable limits, the concentration of CO does not affect the

rate.
• Any step occurring after the Slow step has no effect on the Rate of
the reaction, and therefore, no effect on the Rate Law.

– 325 –
(ii) 1 is a fast equilibrium, 2 is slow (RDS) and 3 is fast.

• For step 1:

• Step 2 is the RDS: CO + CR ! COCR

• A rate law in which a reactant has an exponent of 0.5 results from a

dissociative equilibrium.

– 326 –
(iii) 1 and 2 are both fast equilibria while 3 is the slow rate-
determining step?

– 327 –
• What happens if the reaction is catalyzed ?
• Recall that a catalyst is present at the beginning of the reaction and
can be retrieved at the end of the reaction...therefore a catalyst
does not appear in the overall reaction.
• But it may appear in the rate law!

EXAMPLE 3:
The proposed mechanism for a reaction is:

1) A (g) + B (g) º XY (g) [ fast ]

2) XY (g) + C (g) ! D (g) [ slow ]

3) D (g) ! E (g) + B (g) [ fast ]

• What is the overall reaction ?

• What are the intermediate species ?

• Is there a catalyst ?

– 328 –
• What is the rate law ?

– 329 –