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In the Arrhenius model of reaction rates, activation energy is the minimum amount of energy that must be available to reactants for a chemical reaction to occur. [1] The activation energy ( E a ) of a reaction is measured in kilojoules per mole (kJ/mol) or kilocalories per mole (kcal/mol). [ 2 ]
The activation energy is the minimum amount of energy to initiate a chemical reaction and form the activated complex. [6] The energy serves as a threshold that reactant molecules must surpass to overcome the energy barrier and transition into the activated complex.
For any reaction to proceed, the starting material must have enough energy to cross over an energy barrier. This energy barrier is known as activation energy (∆G ≠) and the rate of reaction is dependent on the height of this barrier. A low energy barrier corresponds to a fast reaction and high energy barrier corresponds to a slow reaction.
In chemistry, many reactions depend on the absorption of photons to provide the energy needed to overcome the activation energy barrier and hence can be labelled light-dependent. Such reactions range from the silver halide reactions used in photographic film to the creation and destruction of ozone in the upper atmosphere .
Diagram of a catalytic reaction, showing the energy level as a function of the reaction coordinate. For a catalyzed reaction, the activation energy is lower.. In chemistry, a reaction coordinate [1] is an abstract one-dimensional coordinate chosen to represent progress along a reaction pathway.
where E a is the activation energy and k B is the Boltzmann constant. One of the simplest models of reaction rate is the collision theory . More realistic models are tailored to a specific problem and include the transition state theory , the calculation of the potential energy surface , the Marcus theory and the Rice–Ramsperger–Kassel ...
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The concept of a transition state has been important in many theories of the rates at which chemical reactions occur. This started with the transition state theory (also referred to as the activated complex theory), which was first developed around 1935 by Eyring, Evans and Polanyi, and introduced basic concepts in chemical kinetics that are still used today.