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Chemistry · Ch 6 — Chemical Kinetics

Molecularity of reaction

6.4.2

Molecularity of reaction

The molecularity of a reaction refers to how many reactant molecules are involved in the reaction. In the two elementary reactions of the previous subsection there is only one reactant molecule: these are unimolecular reactions, or their molecularity is one.

O3(g)+O(g)⟶2 O2(g)\mathrm{O_3(g) + O(g) \longrightarrow 2\,O_2(g)}

2 NO2(g)⟶2 NO(g)+O2(g)\mathrm{2\,NO_2(g) \longrightarrow 2\,NO(g) + O_2(g)}

Elementary reactions such as these, involving two reactant molecules, are bimolecular reactions — they have molecularity two. …

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