Skip to content

Chemistry · Ch 6 — Chemical Kinetics

Elementary reaction

6.4.1

Elementary reaction

Consider,

O3(g)⟶O2(g)+O(g)\mathrm{O_3(g) \longrightarrow O_2(g) + O(g)}

C2H5I(g)⟶C2H4(g)+HI(g)\mathrm{C_2H_5I(g) \longrightarrow C_2H_4(g) + HI(g)}

These reactions occur in a single step and cannot be broken down further into simpler reactions. These are elementary reactions.

An elementary reaction is therefore the basic building block of chemical kinetics: what its balanced equation shows is literally the molecular event that happens. That is what makes the idea of molecularity (section 6.4.2) meaningful for elementary reactions — and it is also why, for an elementary step alone, the rate law can be written directly from the …

Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →
← Previous · 6.4Molecularity of elementary reactionsNext · 6.4.2 →Molecularity of reaction