Chem Assessment Notes Explain the importance of collisions between reacting particles as a criterion f or determining reaction rates The

collision theory of reactions is based on the ideas that molecules m ust collide to react, rate of reaction depends on the number of effective collis ions and effective collisions must also have sufficient energy to produce the re action An effective collision is a collision that results in a reaction An effective collision occurs when the relative orientation of the react ants allows the formation of the new bonds necessary to form the products In most cases, for a reaction to take place between A and B, one or more covalent bonds must be broken in A or B or both, and energy is required for thi s to happen This energy comes from the collision between A and B. If the energy of t he collision is strong enough, the bonds can break and the reaction will take pl ace, but if the collision energy is too low, the molecules will bounce apart wit hout reacting Activation energy is the minimum energy needed for a reaction to happen Even if two molecules collide with energy greater than the energy of act ivation, a reaction still may not take place if the molecules are not oriented p roperly when they collide Reaction rate is the speed at which reactants are converted into product s It can be measured by direct measurement of the concentration of at leas t one product or reactant over the course of the reaction Can also be measured indirectly by observing changes in a physical prope rty of the reaction over the course of the reaction e.g. electrical conductivity , temperature, volume of gas produced etc. For a reaction to occur the reactant particles (atoms, molecules or ions ) must collide Anything that increases the rate at which collisions occur will increase the rate of reaction. This could include, increasing the concentration of react ants, increasing surface area of a solid reactant, or rate of stirring Increasing concentration puts more particles in unit volume and so incre ases the chance of collision between particles of one reactant and those of anot her reactant which increases the reaction rate In a reaction between a solute in solution and a suspended solid or betw een a gas and a solid, the reaction rate depends upon the rate of collision betw een the solute or gas particles and the solid The greater the surface area of the solid the more collisions that can o ccur in a given time so reaction rate increases Stirring keeps the solid suspended in the solution or gas and so exposes the maximum surface area of the solid to the solute or gas For reactions in solution, stirring also quickly replaces solution in wh ich the reactant has been used up with fresh solution, so ensuring that there is always plenty of solute for the solid to react with Furthermore, increasing the temperature at which the reaction is occurri ng and addition of a catalyst will increase the reaction rate Explain the relationship between temperature and the kinetic energy of particles As temperature increases, the average kinetic energy (and so the speed) of particles increases which means the rate of collision will increase which wil l cause an increase in the reaction rate If a sample of reactant molecules is heated, the average kinetic energy of the molecules are increased and the reaction rate increases markedly Reactions with greater activation energy have a smaller reaction rate The higher the activation energy, the more rapidly the reaction rate inc reases as temperature increases Reaction rate increases with increasing temperature An approximate rule for this is that every time the temperature goes up

by 10 degrees Celsius, the rate of reaction doubles Increasing temperature has two effects; increase the average kinetic ene rgy of molecules and increase the total number of effective collisions Increasing temperature therefore provides more energy that reactants nee d to change into products When temperature increases, molecules move faster leading to greater col lisions which mean higher reaction rates There is also a different distribution of speeds because the number of v ery fast molecules increases much more than the average speed This means that the number of effective collisions rises even more than the total number of collisions The percentage of collisions that have energy greater than the activatio n energy also rise resulting in a sharp increase in the rate of reaction with in creasing temperature Describe the role of catalysts in chemical reactions, using a named industrial c atalyst as an example A catalyst is any substance that increases the rate of reaction without itself being used up Two main types of catalysts used in the industry are heterogenous and ho mogenous catalysts Heterogenous catalysts are in a different state to their reactants while homogenous catalysts are in the same state as the reactants Many important industrial processes rely on heterogenous catalysts where the catalyst is a solid and the reactants are gases Generally, the rate-limiting step occurs at the solid surface, and hence these catalysts are also referred to as surface crystals Detailed mechanisms of most heterogenous reactions are not understood bu t certain sites on the catalyst surface appear to be able to weaken or break bon ds in reactant molecules These sites on the catalyst are called active sites Examples of industrial catalysts include: o The hydrogenation of unsaturated carbon compounds (e.g. ethene to ethane ) by metal catalysts such as Pt, or Ni. In this case, it is thought that the met al surface weakens the covalent bonds within hydrogen gas, so that individual H atoms react with ethene and other hydrocarbons o The combination of SiO2 and Al2O3 used to speed up cracking of long chai n hydrocarbons into the smaller molecules needed for gasoline (catalytic crackin g) Explain the role of catalysts in changing the activation energy and hence the ra te of chemical reaction Catalysts work by lowering the activation energy of a reaction by allowi ng the reaction to take a different pathway, one with a lower activation energy Without the catalyst, the reactants would require a greater activation e nergy. The catalyst provides lower activation energy Lower activation energy means a higher reaction rate Although catalysts decrease the activation energy of reactions, they hav e absolutely no effect upon the enthalpy change for the reaction This is because that the reactants and products are exactly the same for both the catalysed and uncatalysed reactions Enzymes are biological catalysts Enzymes are proteins which bring about important reactions in living pla nt and animal cells Amylase is a common enzyme in saliva that catalyses the breakdown of sta rch to glucose Lipare, in the stomach, catalyses the decomposition of fats to glycerol and fatty acids A whole set of enzymes is involved in the reaction between glucose and o xygen to release the energy that cells and organisms need Enzymes can accelerate reaction rates by factors 103 to 106