Sage-Tips

Can a reaction have multiple mechanisms?

Multi-step (Consecutive) Reactions Mechanisms in which one elementary step is followed by another are very common. (Bear in mind that intermediates such as Q cannot appear in the rate law of a net reaction.)

Can reactions sometimes go in both directions reversing between reactants and products?

The current causes the water molecules to break down to individual hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Then these atoms recombine to form molecules of hydrogen gas and oxygen gas. Q: In a chemical equation, a reversible reaction is represented with two arrows, one pointing in each direction.

Can a combination reaction have 2 products?

Answer: In a combination reaction, two or more reactants combine to form a single product.

How do you determine if a reaction is reversible or irreversible?

Well the main difference between a reversible and irreversible reaction is obviously that one can be reversed, but if your asking why some reactions are reversible and some not it’s because in an irreversible reaction the reactants react to form products that can’t revert back into reactants (as you’d expect).

Why do reactions have multiple steps?

These reactions instead occur in a series of collisions. Each collision in the series produces an intermediate product that undergoes further collisions until the final products are produced. This long series of collisions producing intermediate products is called a multi-step reaction.

How do reactants combine to form products?

In a chemical reaction, the atoms and molecules that interact with each other are called reactants. In a chemical reaction, reactants contact each other, bonds between atoms in the reactants are broken, and atoms rearrange and form new bonds to make the products.

When two or more reactants combine in a reaction to form a single product it is called?

A combination reaction (also known as a synthesis reaction) is a reaction where two or more elements or compounds (reactants) combine to form a single compound (product).

How does the presence of a catalyst speed up a reaction?

Similarly, the presence of a catalyst can enable an alternative mechanism that greatly speeds up the rate of a reaction. A reaction mechanism must ultimately be understood as a “blow-by-blow” description of the molecular-level events whose sequence leads from reactants to products.

What are the problems in determining the mechanism of a reaction?

In determining the mechanism of a reaction, one of the major problems is to deduce the spatial or three-dimensional changes that occur to the molecules involved as they proceed from their initial state through the intermediate stages and transition states to the final products.

What is a transition state in a chemical reaction?

Right in the middle of the breaking of the old bond and forming of the new bond, the system exists in what we call a “transition state” that is higher in energy than either the reactants or the products. Once it gets beyond this state, it proceeds along the reaction coordinate to form the products.

Why do the fastest members of a series reaction proceed slowly?

So even the “fastest” members of a consecutive series of reactions will proceed as slowly as the “slowest” one. In many multi-step processes, the forward and reverse rate constants for the formation of an intermediate Q are of similar magnitudes and sufficiently large to make the reaction in each direction quite rapid.