Rate-determining step importance

An important consequence of the isotope-dependence of Dq is that, if a chemical reaction involves bond dissociation in a rate-determining step, the rate of reaction is decreased by substitution of a heavier isotope at either end of the bond. Because of the relatively large effect on Dq, substitution of for H is particularly effective in reducing the reaction rate. 

Because the nucleophile is intimately involved in the rate-determining step, not only will the rate depend on its concentration, but the nature of the nucleophile will be very important in determining the rate of the reaction. This is in marked contrast to the ionization mechanism, in wiiich the identity and concentration of the nucleophile do not affect the rate of the reaction. 

Center of mass or translational diffusion is believed to be the rate-determining step for small radicals33 and may also be important for larger species. However, other diffusion mechanisms are operative and are required to bring ihe chain ends together and these will often be the major term in the termination rate coefficient for the case of macromolecular species. These include ... 

It is important to realize that the assumption of a rate-determining step limits the scope of our description. As with the steady state approximation, it is not possible to describe transients in the quasi-equilibrium model. In addition, the rate-determining step in the mechanism might shift to a different step if the reaction conditions change, e.g. if the partial pressure of a gas changes markedly. For a surface science study of the reaction A -i- B in an ultrahigh vacuum chamber with a single crystal as the catalyst, the partial pressures of A and B may be so small that the rates of adsorption become smaller than the rate of the surface reaction. 

Results discussed above show in several lines a distinct biomimetic-type activity of iron complexes stabilized in the ZSM-S matrix. The most important feature is their unique ability to coordinate a very reactive a-oxygen form which is similar to the active oxygen species of MMO. At room temperature a-oxygen provides various oxidation reactions including selective hydroxylation of methane to methanol. Like in biological oxidation, the rate determining step of this reaction involves the cleavage of C-H bond. 

In our previous work [11], it has been shown that the reduction of NO with CH4 on Ga and ln/H-ZSM-5 catalysts proceeds through the reactions (1) and (2), and that CH4 was hardly activated by NO in the absence of oxygen on these catalysts. Therefore, NO2 plays an important role and the formation of NO2 is a necessary step for the reduction of NO with CH4. In the works of Li and Armor [17] and Cowan et al. [18], the rate-determining step in NO reduction with CH4 on Co-ferrierite and Co-ZSM-5 catalysts is involved in the dissociative adsorption of CH4, and the adsorbed NO2 facilitates the step to break the carbon-hydrogen bond in CH4. It is suggested that NO reduction by use of CH4 needs the formation of the adsorbed NO2, which can activate CH4. 

It is a very important conclusion following from Eq. (13.8) that in the case considered, the rate of the overall reaction is determined wholly by the kinetic parameters of the first step ( i and k i), while the second step influences this rate only through the equilibrium concentration of the intermediate B. We say, therefore, that the first step (with its low value of parameter k.j) is the rate-determining step (RDS) of this reaction. Sometimes the term slow step is used, but this term is not very fortunate, inasmuch as the effective rates, and Uj, of the two steps actually are identical. Analogously, when k k2, we have... 

Kinetics of chemical reactions at liquid interfaces has often proven difficult to study because they include processes that occur on a variety of time scales [1]. The reactions depend on diffusion of reactants to the interface prior to reaction and diffusion of products away from the interface after the reaction. As a result, relatively little information about the interface dependent kinetic step can be gleaned because this step is usually faster than diffusion. This often leads to diffusion controlled interfacial rates. While often not the rate-determining step in interfacial chemical reactions, the dynamics at the interface still play an important and interesting role in interfacial chemical processes. Chemists interested in interfacial kinetics have devised a variety of complex reaction vessels to eliminate diffusion effects systematically and access the interfacial kinetics. However, deconvolution of two slow bulk diffusion processes to access the desired the fast interfacial kinetics, especially ultrafast processes, is generally not an effective way to measure the fast interfacial dynamics. Thus, methodology to probe the interface specifically has been developed. 

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