Chemical kinetics is the study of rates of chemical processes and includes investigations of how different experimental conditions can influence the speed of a chemical reaction and yield information about the reaction's mechanism and transition states, as well as the construction of mathematical models that can describe the characteristics of a chemical reaction.
Reaction rates are reported as either the average rate over a period of time or as the instantaneous rate at a single time. Reaction rates can be determined over particular time intervals or at a given point in time.
The rate law for a reaction is a mathematical relationship between the reaction rate and the concentrations of species in solution. Rate laws can be expressed either as a differential rate law, describing the change in reactant or product concentrations as a function of time, or as an integrated rate law, describing the actual concentrations of reactants or products as a function of time. The rate constant and reaction order are extracted directly from the rate law.
A balanced chemical reaction does not necessarily reveal either the individual elementary reactions by which a reaction occurs or its rate law. A reaction mechanism is the microscopic path by which reactants are transformed into products. Each step is an elementary reaction. Species that are formed in one step and consumed in another are intermediates. Each elementary reaction can be described in terms of its molecularity. The slowest step in a reaction mechanism is the rate-determining step.
The steady-state approximation is a method used to derive a rate law. The method is based on the assumption that one intermediate in the reaction mechanism is consumed as quickly as it is generated. Its concentration remains the same in a duration of the reaction.
Catalysts participate in a chemical reaction and increase its rate. They do not appear in the reaction’s net equation and are not consumed during the reaction. Catalysts allow a reaction to proceed via a pathway that has a lower activation energy than the uncatalyzed reaction. In heterogeneous catalysis, catalysts provide a surface to which reactants bind in a process of adsorption. In homogeneous catalysis, catalysts are in the same phase as the reactants. Enzymes are biological catalysts.
