Chemical Kinetics — Chemistry STD 12 Science — Question
Maharashtra BoardEnglish MediumSTD 12 ScienceChemistryChemical Kinetics4 Marks
Question
Why all collisions between reactant molecules do not lead to a chemical reaction?
✓
Answer
(i) Collisions of reactant molecules : The basic re-quirements of a reaction is that the reacting species (atoms, ions or molecules) must come together and collide for a reaction to occur. Therefore the rate of the reaction shall depend on the rate and frequency of collisions which increase with the amount of reacting species and temperature.However it is observed that the rate of reaction is very low as compared to the rate of collisions between reacting species in gaseous phase or liquid phase. This suggests that all the collisions are not fruitful leading to a reaction. Hence it is necessary to consider another factor like energy of colliding species along with collision frequency.
(ii) Energy requirement (Activation energy) : The colliding molecules must possess a certain mini-mum energy called activation energy required far breaking and making bonds resulting in the reaction. This implies that the colliding molecules must have energy equal to or greater than the activation energy. The colliding molecules with less energy do not react.
(iii) Orientation of reactant molecules : The concept of activation energy is satisfactory in case of simple molecules or ions but not in case of complex or higher polyatomic molecules. It is observed that the rates of reaction are less as compared to the rates of collisions between activated molecules with activation energy.
This suggests that in addition, the colliding molecules must have proper orientations relative to each other during collisions. For example, consider the reaction, $A – B-l-C → A + B – C.$ For the reaction to occur, $C$ must collide with B while collisions with A will not be fruitful. Since B has to bond with C.
$ A - B + C \longrightarrow A + B - C \text { (fruitful collision) }$
$C + A - B \longrightarrow \text { no reaction }$
Need a full question paper?
Generate a complete, print-ready paper with questions like this in minutes — across 16+ boards, with answer keys.