CHEMICAL KINETICS

OBJECTIVES

a) Students should be able to describe the rates of reaction.

b) Students should be able to differentiate between the rate of the overall
reaction, rate of formation of products and rate of disappearance of
reactants
c) Students acquire the skill on how to calculate rate of disappearance

BODY

Chemical kinetics, also known as reaction kinetics, studies the rates of reactions and
how they are affected by environmental factors. It also aids in gathering and
analyzing information about the reaction's mechanism and defining the
characteristics of a chemical reaction.

As a chemical reaction progresses, the amount of reactants decreases while the

amount of products increases. The rate of the overall reaction is determined by the
rate at which the reactants are consumed or the rate at which the products are
formed.

If a graph is drawn between the concentrations of reactants and products and time,
the rate of product formation and rate of reactant disappearance can be easily
calculated using the slopes of the product and reactant curves. The reaction's overall
rate may or may not be equal to the rate of formations and disappearances.

(a) Product concentration is zero at time t = 0

 (b) at time t = 0, both reactants and products are present

From the graph, it is understood that the slope of the reactants curve is negative and
that for product curve is positive, indicating the concentration of reactants and
products, decreases and increases respectively. We'll use a simple reaction as an
example to show how the rates of overall reactions, reactant disappearance rates,
and product formation rates are all related.

Let us take the reaction of the formation of water.

2H2 + O2 → 2H2O

From the balanced equation, it is under that, for one mole O2 consumed, 2 moles of
H2 will be consumed and 2 moles of H2O will be formed. Say, the reaction proceeds
for 10 mins, taking 1 mole of H2 and O2 each in the reaction mixture.

2H2 + O2 → 2H2O

t=0110

t = 10 mins 1 – 0.5 1 – 0.25 0.5

Say after 10 minutes, 0.5 moles of H2 is consumed and according to stoichiometry,

0.25 moles of O2 is consumed and 0.5 moles of H2O is formed. Now let us calculate
the rates for H2, O2 and H2O for the first 10 minutes.

Rate disappearance of H2

0.5 − 1
𝐻2 =
10
𝐻2 = 0.05𝑚𝑜𝑙/ 𝑚𝑖𝑛
Rate of disappearance of O2

0.75 − 1
𝑂2 =
10
𝑂2 = 0.025𝑚𝑜𝑙/ 𝑚𝑖𝑛
𝐻2 𝑂 = 0.05𝑚𝑜𝑙/ 𝑚𝑖𝑛
Rate of formation of H2O

0.5−0
𝐻2 𝑂 = 10

From the above calculations, we can see that rate at which H2 is consumed is twice
the rate at which O2 is consumed. So, the stoichiometry of the reaction relates, rates
of formation and disappearances of different reactants and products as follows.
Let, aA + bB → cC + dD be a reaction.

−1 Δ[𝐴] −1 Δ[𝐵] 1 Δ[𝐶] 1 Δ[𝐷]

𝑟= = = =
𝑎 Δ𝑡 𝑏 Δ𝑡 𝑐 Δ𝑡 𝑑 Δ𝑡

Where r → rate of the overall reaction, Δ[A], Δ[B], Δ[C], and Δ[D] represent a change
in concentration and st → change in time.

Δ[𝐴]
→ rate of disappearance of A
Δ𝑡
Δ[𝐵]
→ rate of disappearance of B
Δ𝑡
Δ[𝐶]
→ rate of formation of C
Δ𝑡
Δ[𝐷]
→ rate of formation of D
Δ𝑡

Therefore,

rate of formation/disappearance of any one component

rate of overall reaction=
stoichiometric coefficient of that component

The rate of reaction can be classified into average and instantaneous rate depending
on the amount of time period. If the time period taken is finite, then it’s called
average rate and is represented as,

Δ[𝐶]
𝑟avg=
Δ𝑡
Δl → change in concentration

Δt → change in time

r avg → average rate

The average rate doesn’t give exact information in most cases about the completion
of the reaction.

ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING

Solve for the following questions.

1. What is the rate of reaction?

2. What is the relation between the rate of the overall reaction, rate of formation
of products and rate of disappearance of reactants?
3. What are average and instantaneous rates?
4. Calculate the rate of disappearance of N2 in the following reactions.
N2(g) + 3H2(g) → 2NH3(g)
Given: The rate of disappearance of hydrogen gas is 0.74M/sec.

REFERENCES
Chemical Kinetics - Notes on Rate Of Reaction, Formulas, Questions,. (n.d.).
BYJUS. https://byjus.com/jee/chemical-kinetics/
ANSWER KEY: SOLUTIONS

1. The rate of the reactions is defined as the rate at which the concentration is
changing or the ratio of change in concentration and change in time
Δ[𝐶]
𝑟=
Δ𝑡
r → rate, Δ[C] → change in concentration
Δt → change in time.
2. Let, aA + bB → cC + dD be a reaction.

−1 Δ[𝐴] −1 Δ[𝐵] 1 Δ[𝐶] 1 Δ[𝐷]

𝑟= = = =
𝑎 Δ𝑡 𝑏 Δ𝑡 𝑐 Δ𝑡 𝑑 Δ𝑡

Where r → rate of the overall reaction,

Δ[𝐴]
→ rate of disappearance of A
Δ𝑡
Δ[𝐵]
→ rate of disappearance of B
Δ𝑡
Δ[𝐶]
→ rate of formation of C
Δ𝑡
Δ[𝐷]
→ rate of formation of D
Δ𝑡

3. The average rate is calculated by taking a finite time period whereas the
instantaneous rate is calculated for a time period that is almost tending to
zero. Graphically, the slope of the graph between concentration vs time gives
the average rate and tangent of a point gives instantaneous rate.
Δ[𝐶] 𝑑[𝐶] Δ[𝐶]
𝑟𝑎𝑣𝑔 = 𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑡 = 𝑜𝑟 𝑙𝑖𝑚
Δ𝑡 𝑑𝑡 Δ𝑡→0 Δ𝑡

4. The rate of disappearance of N2 is 1/3 the rate of disappearance of hydrogen

gas 0.74 × (1/3) = 0.247 M/s..