Temperature and Reaction Rate
increased T increased average speed of particles
increased collision frequency increased reaction rate
But,
most collisions fail to yield products!
Significance of activation energy: only those collisions with
energy equal to, or greater than, Ea can yield products.
Increasing T enhances the fraction of productive collisions, f.
f = e-Ea/RT
From this equation, we can see that both Ea and T
affect f, which in turn influences reaction rate.
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