factors affecting rates of reaction

• the rate of a chemical reaction depends on: the collision frequency and the energy transferred during a collision
• collision frequency is how often particles collide
• particles have to collide with enough energy for a collision to be succesful
• the minimum amount of energy needed to kickstart a reaction is called the activation energy
• the rate of reaction depends on four things: temperature, the concentration of a solution, surface area and the presence of a catalyst
• if a solution is made more concentrated, there are more particles in a given volume. this makes collision happen more frequently, increasing the rate of the chemical reaction
• if one of the reactants is a solid, breaking it into smaller pieces increases its surface area to volume ratio, increasing the rate of the reaction
• using a catalyst increases the rate of a reaction
• enzymes are biological catalysts that speed up chemical reactions in the body
• catalysts work by providing an alternative reaction pathway with a lower activation energy