Since changing the environment of the spill is not possible, you need other ways to speed up oil decomposition. One method is to add a biological catalyst, an enzyme mixture known as Oil Spill Eater. As a catalyst, Oil Spill Eater reduces the activation energy of oil decomposition from 121. kJ/mol to 57.0 kJ/mol. By what factor would you expect the rate constant to increase at 25°C? Assume the frequency (C in the lab manual) is the same for both mechanisms. Insert your numerical answer. If desired, scientific notation can be written as 1.00e+2 for 100. Where does activation energy come fromn? INTRODUCTION Although the diamond industry will try to convince you otherwise, diamonds are not actually forever. They are thermodynamically unstable, favoring instead the lower-energy graphite. However, kinetically this reaction occurs at a very, very slow rate, so don't get too excited about using that diamond ring as a writing implement-it will not be graphite for many billions of years. Kinetics is the branch of chemistry that studies the rate of reactions and the factors that influence them. Reaction rates can vary significantly. The conversion of diamond to graphite is extremely slow, the rusting of iron at room temperature is slow (but occurs during a human's lifespan), while the combustion of gasoline in a car engine is extremely fast. There are a number of factors that influence the rate of a reaction. Some of the more important factors involved in the rates of reactions include the concentration of reactants and products, the temperature, the bond energies and bond angles of the reactants, and even the polarity of the solvent. The overall reaction rate may also depend upon the presence of a catalyst, which is not consumed in the reaction, and usually increases the rate by lowering the activation energy, Ea. For a generic reaction in homogeneous solution, shown below, when the two reactants are initially mixed, the initial rate for the reaction, Ri, is equal to the rate constant, k, times the concentrations of the reactants, A and B, raised to some power, a and b, respectively. The exponents, a and b, determine the order of each reactant. If the value of a = 1, the reaction is first order with respect to A which means that when A is doubled while B is held constant, the rate of the reaction will be doubled. If the reaction is second order with respect to A (that is, if a = 2), the reaction rate will %3D increase by four if A is doubled. A + B =C+D R; = k[A]ª[B]b %3D 4