Rates of chemical reactions - the
five factors
In the first part of Rates
of chemical reactions - mechanisms, five factors which affect the
speed of a chemical reaction were identified:
- Reaction complexity.
- Activation energy of the reaction - energy required for the reaction
to occur.
- The state of the reactants, i.e. solid, liquid, solution or gas.
- The temperature at which the reaction occurs.
- The presence of a catalyst or enzyme.
Reaction complexity
The more complex the reaction, the slower it tends
be. If the reaction involves large molecules and a complex series of
transformations, like the formation of protein in a cell, then the reaction
tends to be slow. If the reaction is a simple one, involving the collision
of two atoms or small molecules and their joining to form a new substance,
then the reaction tends to be quick.
The following animation shows a hydrogen atom and chlorine atom combining
to form HCl. Although very much simplified compared to the most reactions,
this shows the simplist possible type of interaction - two atoms colliding
to form a molecule.
Activation energy
To allow particles to react with one another, the reacting particles
must collide with enough energy to overcome any initial repulsion between
themselves and join together. The activation energy is the energy required
to overcome this initial repulsion.
Activation energy is quite often depicted as a hill, with only the
fastest moving particles able to get over the hill and react. Those
with too little energy, simply bounce off each other! The higher the
activation energy hill the slower the reaction.
The state of the reactants
Put
simply, the more movement the reactant particles have, the faster they
will react. Gases tend to react faster than liquids and liquids react
much faster than solids. Liquid petrol is vaporised before exploding
in an internal combustion engine. If you look carefully at a burning
candle you will see that the fastest reaction (the burning) occurs around
the wick, where the solid wax has been melted to form a liquid and then
vaporises before burning.
The temperature
It is true for all chemical reactions that the higher the temperature,
the faster they react. The hotter the surroundings of the reaction,
the faster the particles will be moving and the more energy they will
have and the more particles will collide with enough energy to get over
the activation energy hill and react. This all adds up to faster reactions.
Catalysts
Catalysts are substances which speed up chemical reactions without being
used up in the reaction themselves. Catalysts work by helping the reactant
particles come together in the right orientation for reaction and by
lowering the energy required for the reaction to occur. An enzyme is
an example of a biological catalyst.
Platinum is an excellent catalyst for many gaseous reactions. Platinum
wire placed in a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen gas will make it explode,
a dramatic increase in the rate of reaction!
Summary - Rate of reaction
Slow
|
|
Fast
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complex molecules
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liquids
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simple ions, atoms and molecules
|
high activation energy
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low activation energy
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solids
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gases
|
cold
|
hot
|
|
|
catalysts and enzymes
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