Break for Kinetics

If changes in thermodynamic state functions do not depend on how reactants convert to products, then we can't use them to tell us about a reaction's in-between details. Studies in Kinetics (motions of molecules) can lead us toward this information. Empirical Kinetics is all about trying to come up with a rate expression (rate law) for a chemical reaction of interest. A rate expression (law) is a general summary of how dependent a reaction's rate is on the concentration of each reactant at a specified temperature. To come up with a rate expression, we need to determine the order with respect to each reactant, and then get a value for the rate constant (k) of the reaction at the given temp. How to do? 1. Use the method of initial rates: You did this in lab. Get initial rate vs. [reactant] data, or 2. Try to plot different [reactant] vs time plots to see if data matches up with one of the "integrated rate equation" cases Kayli outlined in the previous post for m = zero, first or second order. Then you can get a value for rate constant (k) from the slope of the straight-line plot at a given temperature. Sound easy enough? Let's try to avoid other cases :-)