A New Look at Reaction Rates

Both rates of radioactive decays and rates of chemical reactions can be thought of as numbers of transformations per time. The rate of reaction, as an intensive quantity characteristic of the process, is obtained by dividing the amount of chemical transformations per time by the volume of the reacti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of chemical education 1999-11, Vol.76 (11), p.1574
Main Author: Cvitas, Tomislav
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Both rates of radioactive decays and rates of chemical reactions can be thought of as numbers of transformations per time. The rate of reaction, as an intensive quantity characteristic of the process, is obtained by dividing the amount of chemical transformations per time by the volume of the reaction system. The practical definition of the reaction rate found in the literature can then be derived by defining the stoichiometric numbers as changes in the number of specific molecules taking part in the reaction per chemical transformation. The name concentration of chemical transformations is introduced for what was previously called reaction variable. It is suggested that the conceptual definition of the advancement of reaction and reaction rate be introduced in general chemistry courses.
ISSN:0021-9584
1938-1328
DOI:10.1021/ed076p1574