Chapter 7 Section 2 Rates of Chemical Reactions
A. Different chemical reactions take different amounts of time.
B. Activation energy- the amount of energy needed to start a chemical reaction
C. The rate of reaction measures how quickly a reactant is disappearing or how
quickly a product is appearing.
a. Tells how quickly the amount of a substance changes per unit of time
b. Importance in industry; the faster a product can be made the lower its cost.
c. Temperature can change the rate of reaction.
d. Concentrations, the amount of substance present in a specific volume,
affects the rate of reaction
e. Particle size affects the speed of a reaction.
D. Inhibitor- a substance that slows down the rate of a chemical reaction
E. Catalyst- a substance that speeds up a chemical reaction; enzymes are special
protein molecules that act as catalysts in the body.