Kinetics

Question 1

Collision theory

Answer 1

Molecules must collide with sufficient energy.
Steric factor
location of collision matters
e.g. if you were trying to react the OH bond in ethanol (CH3CH2OH), a collision with the CH3 group wouldn’t do anything.

Activation energy:
the minimum amount of energy a particle must have to react.

Question 2

Distribution of molecular energies

Answer 2

Maxwell boltzmann distribution.
No particles have 0 energy so curve passes through the origin.
Peak represents most likely energy of any molecule.
Area under graph represents the total number of molecules.
Molecules on left side of activation energy mark will not react as have insufficient energy

Question 3

Maxwell boltzmann distribution at different temps

Answer 3

Area under graph stays the same.
Maximum moves to the right.
More particles on right side so more particles have energy higher than activation energy so increases the number of successful collisions so rate of reaction increases.