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Chapter 15: Q56E (page 647)

Question: Define each of the following: (a) Elementary step (b) Molecularity (c) Reaction mechanism (d) Intermediate (e) Rate-determining step

Short Answer

Expert verified

(a) Elementary step is a single step in a set of reactions.

(b) Molecularity represents a number of molecules interacting in a single step.

(c) Reaction mechanism is a sequence of single-step elementary reactions.

(d) Intermediate is a type of species that is a product of one of the elementary steps but disappears during the last steps.

(e) Rate determining step is the slowest step of the reaction.

Step by step solution

01

Explanation for subpart (a)

Elementary stepis a single step in a set of reactions showing the progress of the reaction on a molecular level.

02

Explanation for subpart (b)

Molecularityrepresents the number of molecules coming together and interacting in a single step of the chemical reaction.

03

Explanation for subpart (c)

Reaction mechanism is a sequence of single-step elementary reactions coming together to form an overall reaction.

04

Explanation for subpart (d)

Intermediate: It is the species that is a product of one of the elementary steps only and does not exist by the final steps of the reaction.

05

Explanation for subpart (e)

Rate determining step:It is the slowest step of the reaction, therefore, determining the overall rate of the reaction.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

The activation energy for the reaction

NO2g+COg→NOg+CO2g

is 125KJ/moland∆Efor the reaction is -216Kj/mol. What is the activation energy for the reverse reaction ?

The thermal degradation of silk was studied by Kuruppillai, Hersh, and Tucker (“Historic Textile and Paper Materials,”ACS Advances in Chemistry Series, No. 212, 1986) by measuring the tensile strength of silk fibres at various time of exposures to elevated temperature. The loss of tensile strength follows first-order kinetics,

-dsdt=ks

Where s is the strength to the fibre retained after heating and k is the first-order rate constant. The effects of adding a deacidifying agent and an antioxidant to the silk were studied, and the following data were obtained:


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b. Does either of the two additives appear to retard the degradation of silk?

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The compound NO2Cl is thought to decompose to NO2 and Cl2 by the following mechanism:
NO2Cl⇌k1k-1NO2+ClNO2Cl+Cl→k2NO2+Cl2

Derive the rate law for the production of Cl2 using the steady-state approximation.

The rate constant (k) depends on which of the following? (There may be more than one answer.)

a. the concentration of the reactants

b. the nature of the reactants

c. the temperature

d. the order of the reaction

Explain.

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(Hint: Think of which would have the lower activation energy.)


2Ce4+(aq)+Hg22+(aq)→2Ce3+(aq)+2Hg22+(aq)H3O+(aq)+OH-(aq)→2H2O(l)
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