Summary Unit 3.1.5 - Kinetics NOTES

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 orientation​must 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
distributed​in a pattern called the ​Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution​:




Changing the reaction conditions will ​alter the shape of the curve​so that the number of
particles with energy greater than the activation energy is different. The total ​area under the
curve​represents the ​total number of molecules​in the sample, therefore it ​must remain
constant​.