Chemical Kinetics
The study of reaction rates, the factors that influence them, and the step-by-step mechanisms by which reactions occur.
Unit
mol/(L·s)
In depth
Kinetics answers the questions thermodynamics cannot: how fast a reaction proceeds and by what route. Rate data reveal the sequence of elementary steps, since any proposed mechanism must reproduce the experimentally observed rate law. Industrially, kinetics governs reactor design and catalyst choice.
Examples in the real world
Explaining why a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen is stable for years until a spark provides the activation energy.