The Deduction of Mechanism

We are concerned in this chapter with the mechanism of a reaction, that is, the detailed manner in which it proceeds, with emphasis on the number and nature of the steps involved. There are several means available for elucidation of the mechanism, including using the rate law, and determining the effect on the rate constant of varying the structure of reactants (linear free energy relations) and of outside parameters such as temperature and pressure. Finally chemical intuition and experiments are often of great value. These means will be analyzed. 

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The effect of the medium on the rate of a reaction does not usually play an important role in the deduction of mechanism. However it is vital that its impact on rate is always assessed. 

Seventeen years is a long time between editions of a book. In order to add some of the vast amount of new material which has been published in that time, I have needed to abridge the older edition and in so doing apologise to oldtimers (myself included ) whose work may have been removed or modified. Nevertheless, the approach used is unchanged. In the first three chapters I have dealt with the acquisition of experimental data and discussed use for building up the rate law and in the deduction of mechanism. In the second part of the book, the mechanistic behavior of transition metal complexes of the Werner type is detailed, using extensively the principles and concepts developed in the first part. 

Because of the difficulties mentioned above, little use has been made of cosolvent effects in the deduction of mechanism. 

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