Reaction kinetics is the study of rates of reaction, from understanding the factors that affect the basic rate of a reaction to using experimental data to derive rate equations that allow us to pull apart the mechanism for a multi-step reaction.
‘Rates of reaction’ is treated in a very simplistic way at GCSE (it’s not all about the collisions). At A level we develop our understanding from first principles, building in a mathematical framework as we go. You need to be confident in using a range of equations to draw graphs and be able to interpret them in a variety of ways. Unfortunately, we can’t get away from the maths in this topic …
You need to have an understanding of natural logarithms so if you are not studying Maths A level I strongly suggest you work your way through powers and indices and logarithms and natural logarithms before you start, just to revise what you need to know. Alternatively, I can highly recommend the Mathsisfun website for all things maths related.
Finally, it is vitally important that you are able to explain how to set up and run various kinetics experiments, how you would use the results to draw appropriate graphs and interpret them to find the order of reaction with respect to individual reactants, the rate equation and the rate constant for a reaction. The practical and the theory go hand-in-hand, especially where exam questions are concerned!
Experimental methods for following the rate of a reaction
a detailed explanation of quenching and measuring gas volumes (with exam tips on describing methods)
How to interpret experimental results
to find the order of reaction with respect to individual reactants, write a rate equation and find a value for the rate constant
Using colorimetry to follow the rate of reaction
Using clock reactions to measure the rate of a reaction
Determining the half life and rate constant in a first order reaction
from the exponential decay curve and using an integrated rate equation
Differential and integrated rate equations for first order reactions
Fully explained so that you can use them with confidence to draw straight line graphs for first order reactions
Using the Arrhenius equation to find the activation energy for a reaction
