LINDEMANN’S MECHANISM

THE COLLISION THEORY OF

UNIMOLECULAR REACTIONS
• THE LINDEMANN MECHANISM IS ALSO KNOWN AS COLLISION
THEORY OF UNIMOLECULAR RECTIONS.

• THIS MECHANISM IS ITSELF AN ANSWER FOR MANY QUESTIONS.

• IT WAS PROPOSED BY F.A LINDEMANN IN 1922.

COLLISION FOR A REACTION TO ATTAIN
ACTIVATION ENERGY
ACTIVATIO
N ENERGY
The term Activation
Energy was introduced in 1889
by Svante Arrhenius, a Swedish
scientist. It is defined as the
least possible amount
of energy(minimum) which is
required to start a reaction or the
amount of energy available in
a chemical system for a reaction
to take place.
A
Without attaining
activation energy!!!!!!
Here is the
solution
Lindemann solved the problem. The
Lindemann mechanism can satisfactorily
explain the phenomena of the
unimolecular reaction.
What is REACTION
MECHANISM??
LINDEMANN split the whole reaction into
different
Elementary steps…….
A A

P
As we can see that there is a proper
collision of A molecule with another A
molecule. If that happens, then the reaction
would follow second order kinetics as it
become a bimolecular reaction……..
Rate determination
r = k�[A]
 experimental

Lindemann

Critisicm on Lindemann’s mechanism