Role of Concentration and Nature of the ... - Education - EzineMark

The study of rates of a chemical processes is known as chemical kinetics or reaction kinetics. It explains how different environmental conditions influence the reaction rates. It also throws insight about the various stages involved in the chemical reaction such as transition state and intermediate state etc, Back in 1864, Cato Guldberg and Peter Waage formulated Law of mass action which lead to the development of chemical kinetics. The law states that the speed of a chemical reaction is directly proportional to the amount of reacting reagents.

More importantly, chemical kinetics deals with the determination of reaction rates of chemical reactions through which the order of the reaction and rate constants are derived. It can be derived for various types of reactions like zero-order reaction (for which the rate is independent of its concentration), first order reaction, second order reaction and for couple of other reactions.

?The factors which influence the rate of chemical reactions are

• Physical state of the reactants
• Concentration of the reactants
• Temperature at which the reaction occurs
• Influence of Catalyst

Let?s see the influence of first two factors.

Nature of the reactants ? The reaction rate varies based on the type of reactants. Contrastingly the reaction between acid and base is found to be faster as it involves the exchange of ions. Interestingly, the reaction involving a weak co-valent bond interaction proceeds at a slower phase.

The influence of ions and its bonding plays a pivotal role in the reaction rates.

Physical State of the Reactants ? Generally the physical state of the reactants has a greater influence in the reaction rate. Reactants that are in the same phase (Gas,Solid,Liquid) tends to react faster than the ones which exist in different phase. This is due to the thermal motion that brings these phases to interact together. When they are in different phase, the area of interaction between these two phases is very limited which results in the lesser reactivity and ultimately slower reaction rate. However, when the reactants are present in the same phase, the area of interaction is much higher and ultimately leading to faster reaction rate. Moreover vigorous shaking or stirring is required when the reagents in two different phase interacts. Researchers found that reactants that are in finely grained state tend to possess greater surface area for reactions and finally leading to faster reaction rate.

Concentration of the reactants- According to collision theory, molecules should collide with each other in order for a reaction to take place. Here concentration plays a vital role. As the concentration of the reactants increases the frequency of collision naturally increases thereby increasing the reaction rate according to the collision theory. This is widely used in reaction kinetics of many chemical reactions to increase the reaction rate by gradually increasing different reactants.

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