Chapter 11….

Reaction-Kinetics
SHORT QUESTION WITH ANSWERS
Q.1 What is meant by chemical kinetics?

Ans.
It is that branch of chemistry which helps to study the followings.
(i) Rates of chemical reactions.
(ii) Study the mechanism of reactions.
Q.2 Differentiate between instantaneous rate of reaction and average rate of
reaction.
Ans.
The rate of a chemical reaction at a specific time or at any moment is called
as instantaneous rate of a reaction. It is very fast at the start and very slow at the
end.
Q.3 Rate of a chemical reaction is an ever changing parameter under the given
conditions. Comment.
Ans.
According to law of mass action, the rate of chemical reaction is directly
product of active masses of reactants. When the reaction progress, the reaction is
very fast at the beginning slow, somewhere in the middle and very slow at the end.
The reason is that rate depends upon concentration as conc. decreases every
moment, rate decreases every moment.
Q.4 A student started to work on 200 gms of a compound A whose half life 10
hours. How much of the compound will be left after 50 hours.
Ans.
10 hours 10 hours 10 hours
200 gm  100 gm  50 gm 
10 hours 10 hours
6.25 gm  12.5 gm  25 gm
Q.5 What is meant by rate law?
Ans.
The rate of a chemical reaction is directly proportional to the product of
concentrations of reactants each raised to some power.
Consider the following reaction
aA + bB  cC + dD
 Rate of reaction  [A]a [B]b
This equation is called rate law.
Q.6 What is meant by specific rate constant, or rate constant?
Ans.
The rate constant of a reaction is the rate when the concentration of reactant
are unity.
For the reaction
A+B  C+D
Rate of reaction = K [A] [B]
This equation is called rate law where K is called specific rate constant.
When [A] [B] = 1 then
Rate of reaction = K
Q.7 What is meant by order of reaction?
Ans.
The order of reaction is the sum of exponents of the concentration terms in
the rate equation. OR
Number of reacting substances whose concentration changes during the
chemical reaction.
Q.8 Explain zero order reaction?
Ans.
That chemical reaction whose rate is independent of concentration of
reactant e.g. all photochemical reaction are zero order e.g.
chlorophyll
6CO2 + 6H2O  C6H12O6 + 6CO2
light
Q.9 What are pseudo order reaction?
Ans.
When one of reactant is taken in large excess its concentration is consider
as constant and the order becomes pseudo.
CH3 CH3
| |
CH2– C–Br + H2O  CH3 – C–OH + HBr
| Excess |
CH3 CH3
Rate = K [(CH3)3 CBr]
The conc. of H2O is taken as constant.
Q.10 What is half life period?
Ans.
 Half life period of a reaction is the time required to convert 50% of
reactants into products e.g. half life of decomposition of N2O5 at 45oC is 24
minutes. For first order reaction, half life period is independent of the initial
concentration of reactants.
Q.11 The radioactive decay is always first order reaction.
Ans.
The radioactive decay of a substance is directly proportions to the number
of nuclei in the sample. Its half life period is independent of its initial conc. of
reactant.
[t1/2] 
[t1/2]  For first order n = 1
Q.12 What is meant by rate determining step?
Ans.
If a reaction occurs in several steps, one of the steps is the slowest. The rate
of this step determines the overall rate of reaction. This slowest step is called as
rate determining step. The number of molecules taking part in the rate determining
step appears in the rate equation of the reaction e.g.
NO2(g) + CO(g)  NO(g) + CO2(g)
The rate equation of the reaction is found to be
Rate = K [NO2]2
This equation shows that rate of reaction is independent of conc. of CO. In
other words the equation tells us that reaction involve more than one step.
Q.13 Describe electrical conductivity method for determination of rate of
reaction.
Ans.
The rate of a reaction involving ions can be studied by electrical
conductivity method the conductivity of such a solution depends upon the rate of
change of conc. of the reacting ions or the ions formed during reaction.
Q.14 Explain briefly spectrometry for the rate determination.
Ans.
This method is applicable if a reactant or a product absorbs ultraviolet,
visible or infrared radiations. The rate of reaction can be measured by measuring
the amount of radiations absorbed.
Q.15 What is difference between dilatometric and refractrometric method?
Ans.
Dilatometric method is useful for those reactions, which involve small
volume changes in solutions. The volume change is directly proportional to the
extent of reaction, where refractrometric method id applicable to reactions in
solutions where there are changes in refractive indices of the substances taking part
in the chemical reaction.
Q.16 Describe briefly optical rotation method.
Ans.
In this method, the angle through which plane polarised light is rotated by
the reacting mixture is measured by a polarimeter. The extent of rotation
determines the concentration of optically active substance. If any of the species in
the reaction mixture is optically active, then this method can be followed to find
out the rate reaction.
Q.17 Describe Half–life method for finding the order of reaction?
Ans.
Order of reaction can be determined if half–life and initial concentration is
inversely proportional to the initial concentration of reactants raised to the power
one less than the order of reaction.
Therefore (t1/2)n 
Let us perform a reaction twice by taking two different initial
concentrations a1 and a2 and their half–life periods are found to be t1 and t2
respectively
(t1)n  and t2 
= Dividing the two relations.
Taking log on both sides:
log = (n – 1) log
Rearranging n = 1 +
Q.18 Describe how surface area effect rate of reaction?
Ans.
The increased surface area of reaction increases the possibilities of atoms
and molecules of reactants to come in contact with each other and rate increase
e.g. Al foil reacts with NaOH moderately when warmed but powered Al reacts
rapidly with cold NaOH and H2 is evolved.
Q.19 Differentiate between positive and negative catalyst.
Ans.
The substance which increase the rate of reaction is called positive catalyst
Pt
e.g. 2H2 + O2  2H2O
without pt reaction is very slow when the rate of reaction is retarded by
adding a substance, ten it is said to be a negative catalyst e.g. tetra ethyl lead is
added to petrol, because it saves the petrol from pre–ignition.
Q.20 Differentiate between auto catalysis and promoter.
Ans.
 In some reactions, a product formed act as catalyst and this phenomenon is
called auto catalysis. e.g., In the hydrolysis of ethyl acetate, acetic acid acts as
catalyst for further reaction.
CH3COOC2H5 + H2O CH3COOH + C2H5OH
where as promoters are those substances which increases the activity of a
catalyst. It is therefore called as catalyst of catalyst. e.g. Hydrogenation of
vegetable oils is accelerated by Nickle. The activity of Nickle can be increased by
using copper and tellurium.
Q.21 Differentiate between homogeneous catalysis and heterogeneous catalysis.
Ans.
That process, in which catalysts and reactants have same phase is called as
homogeneous catalysis e.g.,
NO(g)
2SO2(g) + O2(g) 2SO3(g)
but if the catalyst and reactants have different phases it is called as
heterogeneous catalysis
Pt
4NH3(g) + 5O2 4NO(g) + 6H2O
Q.22 Can a catalyst can change the equilibrium constant?
Ans.
A catalyst cannot affect the equilibrium constant of a reaction but it helps
the equilibrium to establish earlier. The rates of forward and backward steps are
increased equally.
Q.23 What is meant by enzyme catalysis?
Ans.
Those reactions in which enzymes are used as catalyst are called as enzyme
catalysis e.g.

O
|| Urease
NH2– C–NH2 + H2O  2NH3 + CO2
(Urea)
Urea undergoes hydrolysis into NH3 and CO2 in the presence of enzyme
urease.
Q.24 What is poisoning of catalyst?
Ans.
Catalytic poisoning happens due to presence of trace amount of substances,
which renders them in–effective, such substances are called poisons. The
poisoning of a catalyst may be temporary or permanent. In permanent poisoning,
the poison reacts chemically with the catalyst. e.g., the manufacturing of H2SO4
in the contact process needs pt as catalyst. The traces of arsenic present as
impurities in the reacting gases make platinum ineffective.
Q.25 What is effect of temperature on catalyst?
Ans.
Some catalysts are physically changed by a change in temp and hence their
power will be decreased e.g. colloidal catalysts like pt may be coagulated with rise
in temp.