How the Rate of the Reaction Is Affected by Activation Energy and Orientation of Collisions - Assignment Example

It is clear from the discussion that since Activation Energy (Ea) refers to the amount of energy that must be overcome for a chemical reaction to proceed, it varies inversely with the ‘rate of the reaction’ so, at higher Ea, the reaction proceeds slowly whereas, at lower Ea, the reaction goes fast. Temperature is typically associated with the kinetic energy (KE) of the system and their direct proportionality to the collisions of molecules per unit of time indicates that higher temperature bears a corresponding increase in reaction rate while lower temperature favors a decrease in reaction rate.

 Generally, more frequent collisions yield higher effective collisions per unit of time which would increase the rate of chemical reaction whereas less frequent collisions decrease the rate of such reaction. With proper orientation of molecules during collisions, a higher reaction rate is favored while through improper or lack of orientation among colliding molecules, a lower reaction rate can be expected. According to the graph, the minimum energy for a reaction is readily achieved with a greater number of collisions at T2 through the same requirement is met at T1 with fewer collisions.

Thus, since the rate of a chemical reaction is determined by the number of collisions that temperature facilitates, the reaction rate depends on the control of temperature. A certain reaction has an activation energy of 54.0 kJ/mol. As the temperature is increased from 22°C to a higher temperature the rate constant increases by a factor of seven. Calculate the higher temperature. Catalyst -- a substance that speeds up a chemical reaction or increases the rate of such reaction using lowering the activation energy, yet is neither consumed nor produced in the reaction process.