Energy and Rates- A Comprehensive Guide on Factors That Affect

Reaction Rates, Graphing Potential Energy Curves, and Maxwell-

Boltzmann Distribution Curves
Adam Tibi
Mr. Haberer
SCH-4U
1/20/20
Introduction:
Before we begin, I feel its important to highlight the real-life significance and implications of
what we are about to learn. Rates occur everywhere in our life. For example, when we are in a
car driving on the highway, the speedometer tells us the rate at which our position is changing
with respect to time. Manufacturing companies and factories want to maximize cost efficiency
and to do so, increasing the rate at which the reaction occurs will help save time. After all, time
is money! In this unit, we will start off by talking about reaction rates which is the speed at
which a reaction occurs or more specifically, it is the concentration of a product that is formed in
a unit of time or the concentration of a reactant that is consumed in a unit of time.

What is a Rate?
Rate is simply defined as the ratio between two related quantities in different units. Rates are
usually analyzed with respect to time. Although this isn’t the case all the time,

How do we Increase the Reaction Rate?

1: Chemical Nature of the Reactants
 Chemical nature of a substance is what gives it its chemical properties
 In turn, chemical properties determine the behaviour of a pure substance when it
undergoes a chemical change/reaction
 For example, a metals tendency to oxidize as described by its standard reduction potential
value affects the rate at which the reaction occurs. Now there’s a tie between
electrochemistry and rates!
2: Concentration of Reactants
 Put it simply, concentration refers to the amount of a substance per defined space.
 By increasing the concentration of one of the reactants, we increase the likelihood or
probability that a collision will occur.
 This is because there is more substance per defined space which means there are more
opportunities or interactions between the reactants which means a collision is likely to
occur sooner when reactant’s concentrations have been increased
 Think about it like this: There is a higher chance of bumping into a friend on a busy day
at the mall (higher concentration of people), than there is on a not so busy day
3: Surface Area
 Picture this: You hold a cube of some substance and its surface area would be the area of
the 6 faces. If you were to cut the cube in half, you would now have 12 faces.
 Having more faces, or rather, a greater surface area increases the amount of potential
successful collision sites and thus increases the reaction rate
 This is precisely why solids are crushed with a mortar into smaller pieces before having
them take place in a reaction
 This is why ground beef cooks faster than steak; ground beef has a larger surface area
than steak since it is cut into pieces
4: Temperature of the System
 Temperature is the measure of average kinetic energy of entities in a substance
 By increasing the temperature, average kinetic energy is also increased- making the
substances move quicker
 By moving quicker, an effective collision will occur in a shorter amount of time
 It is said that an increase of approximately 10°C is enough to often double or even triple
the rate of the reaction. This is substantial given the relatively small change in
temperature
5: Presence of a Catalyst
 Increases the rate of the reaction, however, the catalyst itself will not become
permanently altered
 Catalysts are widely used in manufacturing processes as only a very small amount is
required to have a substantial effect making them cost effective for the most part

Activation Energy (Ea)

 The minimum amount of energy that the reactants must have in order for the reaction to
be successful
 Activation energy is needed to overcome the repulsive electrostatic forces between
colliding entities as well as weakening the bonds of the reactants
 Think of it like this: in order to get a ball up a hill, you’re going to need enough kinetic
energy to overcome gravity and reach it to the peak. Once you have reached the peak
most of your kinetic energy has been transferred to potential energy due to the gain in
height
 In this scenario however, the potential energy is the energy stored in the bonds within and
among the reactants while the kinetic energy is their movement
 Once the reactant entities have maximized their potential energies, (reached the peak of
the curve) the atoms will become extremely unstable, containing partially formed and
unformed bonds. This is known as the activated complex or the transition state
 Potential Energy-Time Graph
 For an exothermic reaction since energy is being released from the reactants to the
products, the potential energy decreases at the end of the reaction thus giving the
reaction a negative change in enthalpy
 The activation energy spans from the peak of the curve to the starting point. This is
because the activation energy represents how much energy it takes to reach the top of
the hill otherwise known as the activation complex
 The activation complex is at the very peak of the curve where zero change in
potential energy occurs. The activation complex features an unstable arrangement of
atoms which contain partially formed and unformed bonds

Maxwell-Boltzmann Distribution Curve

 When observing a chemical system, its important that we analyze the distribution of
kinetic energy among molecules
 This distribution will change depending on the changes that are made to the system such
as all the ones that were discussed in How do we Increase the Reaction Rate?
 Given our newly obtained knowledge on activation energy and collision theory, we can
now go more in depth on the effects of changes to the system

What Happens When We Change the Temperature?

 Remember, temperature is the measure of the average kinetic energy of entities in a
substance
 Therefore, increasing the temperature will also increase the average collision kinetic
energy
 Since we now know that kinetic energy is increased, we know that the speed of the
entities will naturally increase
 Therefore, increasing the temperature will increase the total number of collisions.
You are more likely to bump into someone on your way to work if you are sprinting
rather than walking.
 By increasing the temperature, a larger fraction of entities will have the required kinetic
energy (or activation energy) needed for a successful collision
 Therefore, increasing the temperature will increase the proportion of effective
collisions. However, the total number of entities is still the same, all that is
happening is that more of them are reaching the required energy for a successful
collision
 Increasing the kinetic energy will increase the rate and force of collisions between
reactants
 Therefore, increasing the temperature will increase the number of effective
collisions
  Increasing the temperature is not going to alter the minimum amount of energy needed
for a successful collision
 Therefore, increasing the temperature has no change on the activation energy

What Happens When We Add a Catalyst?

 A catalyst does not increase the number of collisions nor does it increase the kinetic
energy
 Instead, a catalyst changes the reaction mechanism, giving it an alternative pathway that
reaches the same result
 This alternative pathway will have a lower activation energy and thus a higher
proportion of effective collisions
 Having a lower activation energy thus increases the number of effective collisions as
the requirement of an effective collision has just been decreased (activation energy)
 The effects of an inhibitor are the exact opposite as a catalyst

What Happens When We Change the Concentration?

 Increasing the concentration will not increase the average kinetic energy, however,
it does increase the total number of collisions. Think about it like this: increasing the
amount of people in a room is not going to necessarily increase the speed at which they
are moving at in the room.
 By having an increased concentration, naturally, more successful collisions will
occur, however the proportion of successful collisions will not occur because of the
1:1 ratio
 It is important to note that an increase in surface area will exhibit the exact same changes
or lack thereof