Question

Kinetics

"Explain why you think that the stoichiometric coefficients do not represent the order of the reactants in a chemical reaction?"

Answer 1

First of all : Order of a chemical reaction can only be determined experimentally and there is no guarantee that it will be equal to the sum of the stoichiometric coefficients of reactants.

The exponents of the reactants in the rate law will not always be equal to the stoichimetric coefficients unless the reaction follows a single step mechanism.

We will consider the stoichimetric coefficients of the reactants in the rate-determining step to calculate the Order of the reaction which will not be always equal to the actual Stoichiometric coefficients of the reactants in the given chemical reaction.