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Chapter 14: Problem 8

What is meant by the order of a reaction?

Short Answer

Expert verified
The 'order of a reaction' is a term used in chemical kinetics to refer to the power dependence of the reaction rate on the concentration of each reactant. The total reaction order is the sum of these powers. The reaction order can only be determined experimentally.

Step by step solution

01

Define the term 'reaction order'

In the area of chemical kinetics, the 'order of a reaction' is defined as the power dependence of the rate on the concentration of each reactant. This gives us an idea about the effect of the concentration of the reactants on the rate of the reaction.
02

Examples of reaction order

The order of a reaction can be 0, 1, 2, or more. For a zero-order reaction, the rate of reaction is independent of the concentration of the reactants. For a first-order reaction, the rate of reaction is directly proportional to the concentration of one of the reactants. For a second-order reaction, the rate of reaction is directly proportional to the square of the concentration of a reactant or to the concentrations of two reactants.
03

Determination of reaction order

The order of a reaction is generally determined experimentally and isn't necessarily related to the stoichiometric coefficients of the balanced chemical reaction.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

A certain reaction is known to proceed slowly at room temperature. Is it possible to make the reaction proceed at a faster rate without changing the temperature?

The decomposition of dinitrogen pentoxide has been studied in carbon tetrachloride solvent \(\left(\mathrm{CCl}_{4}\right)\) at a certain temperature: \(2 \mathrm{~N}_{2} \mathrm{O}_{5} \longrightarrow 4 \mathrm{NO}_{2}+\mathrm{O}_{2}\) $$ \begin{array}{cc} {\left[\mathrm{N}_{2} \mathrm{O}_{5}\right](\mathrm{M})} & \text { Initial Rate }(\mathrm{M} / \mathrm{s}) \\ \hline 0.92 & 0.95 \times 10^{-5} \\ 1.23 & 1.20 \times 10^{-5} \\ 1.79 & 1.93 \times 10^{-5} \\ 2.00 & 2.10 \times 10^{-5} \\ 2.21 & 2.26 \times 10^{-5} \end{array} $$ Determine graphically the rate law for the reaction and calculate the rate constant.

Variation of the rate constant with temperature for the first-order reaction $$ 2 \mathrm{~N}_{2} \mathrm{O}_{5}(g) \longrightarrow 2 \mathrm{~N}_{2} \mathrm{O}_{4}(g)+\mathrm{O}_{2}(g) $$ is given in the following table. Determine graphically the activation energy for the reaction. $$ \begin{array}{lc} \mathrm{T}(\mathrm{K}) & \mathrm{k}\left(\mathrm{s}^{-1}\right) \\ \hline 273 & 7.87 \times 10^{3} \\ 298 & 3.46 \times 10^{5} \\ 318 & 4.98 \times 10^{6} \\ 338 & 4.87 \times 10^{7} \end{array} $$

On which of these quantities does the rate constant of a reaction depend: (a) concentrations of reactants, (b) nature of reactants, (c) temperature?

Consider the zero-order reaction \(\mathrm{A} \longrightarrow \mathrm{B}\). Sketch the following plots: (a) rate versus [A] and (b) [A] versus \(t\).
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