CHM 1301 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Chemical Kinetics, Collision Theory, Elementary Reaction

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Chemistry
• Course: CHM 1301
• Professor: Mathew L

Document Summary

Reaction mechanisms: the exact molecular pathway that starting materials follow on their way to becoming products. Elementary reaction: the individual steps of a reaction mechanism. The overall reaction mechanisms describes the formation of products and the elimination of reagents. Elementary reactions describe the individual steps of the overall reaction mechanism. Some reaction mechanisms form intermediates, which are species that are not part of the overall stoichiometry but are produced in the early part of a reaction and consumed in a later part of the reaction. If we use no2 as an example, we can describe the overall reaction, the elementary steps in a reaction, and the reaction intermediates: Step 1: no2 (g) + no2 (g) no(g) + no3 (g) Step 2: no3 (g) + co (g) no2 (g) + co2 (g) Overall reaction: no2 (g) + co (g) no (g) + co2 (g) Notably, there is a wide variety of possible elementary steps to form the same overall reaction: