Topic 5: Kinetics
Collision theory
Chemical reactions occur when particles of substances collide. For a reaction to occur
successfully, these collisions must have energy greater than or equal to the activation energy
of the reaction and the particle orientationmust be correct.
Reaction Conditions
The conditions of a reaction impact the collisions of the particles and can be altered to
provide the particles with more energy. Therefore the conditions can be changed to increase
the likelihood of a collision occurring with sufficient energy to react in order to increase rate.
Maxwell-Boltzmann distrubution
Not all molecules in a substance have the same amount of energy. Their energies are
distributedin a pattern called the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution:
Changing the reaction conditions will alter the shape of the curveso that the number of
particles with energy greater than the activation energy is different. The total area under the
curverepresents the total number of moleculesin the sample, therefore it must remain
constant.
Collision theory
Chemical reactions occur when particles of substances collide. For a reaction to occur
successfully, these collisions must have energy greater than or equal to the activation energy
of the reaction and the particle orientationmust be correct.
Reaction Conditions
The conditions of a reaction impact the collisions of the particles and can be altered to
provide the particles with more energy. Therefore the conditions can be changed to increase
the likelihood of a collision occurring with sufficient energy to react in order to increase rate.
Maxwell-Boltzmann distrubution
Not all molecules in a substance have the same amount of energy. Their energies are
distributedin a pattern called the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution:
Changing the reaction conditions will alter the shape of the curveso that the number of
particles with energy greater than the activation energy is different. The total area under the
curverepresents the total number of moleculesin the sample, therefore it must remain
constant.
