Chemical Kinetics Flashcards
What is the rate-determining step?
It is the slowest step in the reaction mechanism. The rate of the overall reaction is controlled by the rate of this rate-determining step.
What is an enzyme?
It is a biological catalyst which catalyses the biochemical reactions in living organisms.
Usually a protein, an enzyme provides an alternative pathway with lower activation energy for the biochemical reaction to occur.
What is a catalyst?
It provides an alternative pathway, one which involved a lower activation energy than that of an uncatalysed reaction.
What is understood by the term order of reaction?
The power to which the concentration of reactant are raised in the rate equation.
Rate = k[A]m[B]n
What do you know by rate constant, k?
It is the proportionality constant in the rate equation which relates the rate of reaction to the concentration of the reactants.
What is a half-life?
It is the time required for concentration of a reactant to decrease to half of its initial value.
