Why can we not determine the order of a reaction by taking into consideration the balanced chemical equation?
A balanced chemical equation often leads to an incorrect order or rate law. e.g., the following reaction seems to be a tenth order reaction
This is actually a second-order reaction. Actually, the reaction is complex and occurs in several steps. The order of such reaction is determined by the slowest step in the reaction mechanism.
Order is determined experimentally and is confined to the dependence of the observed rate of reaction on the concentration of reactants.
© 2024 GoodEd Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
