Introduction to Kinetics

CHEMISTRY STUDENT GUIDES. GUIDED BY STUDENTS

Kinetics, the rate at which a chemical reaction takes place, underpins all areas of chemistry, from drug action in the human body to the formation of the stratospheric ozone hole. In every aspect of life on this planet and indeed processes occurring in space and on other worlds, the rate of chemical reactions is crucial to that system. Therefore, it is important to be able to understand how to characterise these processes in terms of their rate of reaction or their kinetics. For non-chemists, e.g. you may be a biochemist, a pharmacist, a geologist, a medic, etc., chemical kinetics will impact on your studies.

In this text we will enhance our understanding of kinetics in both the gas and liquid phase. We will start with the simple concept of collision theory and build up from there. By exploring and understanding the underlying concepts in chemical kinetics; order of reaction, rate constant, steady state approximation, collision and transition state theory, we will be able to tackle a range of problems in differing contexts and that the reader will be able to see strong similarities in approach.

There will be an emphasis on learning by working through examples and by the end of the book we hope that the reader will be confident in their understanding and application of these each concept discussed. We assume that the student has some understanding of pre-university Chemistry but we will start by recapping ideas developed about kinetics that are typically derived at this pre-University stage.

Chemistry Student Guides are written with current students involved at every stage, guiding the books towards the most challenging aspects of the topic. Extra material available online at: rsc.li/csgkinetics