The following reaction mechanism has been proposed for a reaction:
(slow) NO2 + NO2-> NO3 + NO
(fast) NO3 + CO -> CO2 + NO2
A. Write the equation for the overall reaction from the mechanism above.
B.Write the rate law for the reaction
Hey Michael,
A) For the first step you want to take the reactants from both the slow and fast steps and put them on the left of the arrow. And put all four products on the right side. Then cancel out anything that appears on both (Ex: NO2) Then make sure all your elements are balanced and you have your overall equation.
B) Your rate law is r = k[products]^order. Remember that your slow step is your rate determining step.
A. To determine the overall reaction from the given reaction mechanism, we need to cancel out any intermediate species. Since NO3 is both a product and a reactant in the mechanism, we can cancel it out. The overall reaction can be obtained by adding the two elementary steps:
NO2 + NO2 -> NO3 + NO
NO3 + CO -> CO2 + NO2
By canceling out NO3, the overall reaction equation is:
2NO2 + CO -> CO2 + NO
B. To write the rate law for the reaction, we need to consider the rate-determining step, which is the slowest step in the reaction mechanism. In this case, the slow step is:
NO2 + NO2 -> NO3 + NO
The rate of this step can be expressed as the product of the concentrations of the reactants raised to the power of their respective stoichiometric coefficients:
Rate = k(NO2)^2
Where k is the rate constant and (NO2)^2 represents the concentration of NO2 squared, as it has a stoichiometric coefficient of 2 in the slow step.