Chapter 20, Problem 6RQ

What generally happens to the rate of a chemical reaction with increasing temperature?

To determine

The effect of increasing temperature to the rate of a chemical reaction.

Answer to Problem 6RQ

The reaction rate of a chemical reaction is increased with the increasing temperature.

Explanation of Solution

The chemical species are in a random motion during a reaction process and show continuous collisions of the reacting species to form the product species. The collisions of reacting molecules must have;

1) The proper orientation of the reacting molecules.

2) A sufficient amount of energy to overcome the amount of activation energy.

Only the collisions which satisfy the above condition will form the product molecules and rest all collisions are wasted.

If the temperature is increased during the chemical process the kinetic energy of the system is increased and thus molecules will collide with higher energy. This leads to the more probability of proper collisions and thus increases the rate of reaction.

Conclusion:

Therefore, the reaction rate of a chemical reaction is increased with the increasing temperature.