Rate Determining Step and Steady-State Approximation

Example 1,4-3 Rate Determining Step and Steady-State Approximation 

Consider a simple reaction with one intermediate species  

This is the same case solved earlier, and is illustrated in Fig. 1.4-2. 

There are some interesting and useful features of this simple system that will illustrate the important concept of the rate determining step. Note from Fig. 1.4-2 that when ki Icj, the two reactions are almost separate in time, and the overall rate of product formation is dominated by the slow reaction 2. Algebraically, from the integrated rate equations given above, after a certain time interval  

For the opposite case of Icj k, the integrated rate equations in a different rearrangement give  

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