kinetics

• important features of a maxwell-boltzmann distrbution

  • the area under the curve equals the total number of molecules
  • the shaded area is the number of molecules with energy greater then Ea
  • there are no molecules with zero energy
  • there is no maximum energy for molecules
  • the activation energy is higher than the average energy
  • the highest point on the graph is the most probable energy (Emp)
• maxwell-boltzman: effect of temperature on reaction rate

  • at higher temperatures the peak of the curve is lower and moves to the right
  • the number of particles with very high energy increases
  • the total area under the curve is the same for each temperature
  • the shaded area to the right of Ea represents the number of particles with energy equal or greater than the Ea. so higher temperatures, larger shaded area, so more successful collisions
  • so at higher temperatures more of the molecules have Ea or above and hence more of the collisions are succesful and result in reaction. hence higher rate