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In a chemical reaction, the half-life of a species is the time it takes for the concentration of that substance to fall to half of its initial value. In a first-order reaction the half-life of the reactant is ln(2)/λ, where λ (also denoted as k) is the reaction rate constant.
Here stands for concentration in molarity (mol · L −1), for time, and for the reaction rate constant. The half-life of a first-order reaction is often expressed as t 1/2 = 0.693/k (as ln(2)≈0.693).
As useful rules of thumb, a first-order reaction with a rate constant of 10 −4 s −1 will have a half-life (t 1/2) of approximately 2 hours. For a one-step process taking place at room temperature, the corresponding Gibbs free energy of activation (ΔG ‡) is approximately 23 kcal/mol.
Using the Eyring equation, there is a straightforward relationship between ΔG ‡, first-order rate constants, and reaction half-life at a given temperature. At 298 K, a reaction with ΔG ‡ = 23 kcal/mol has a rate constant of k ≈ 8.4 × 10 −5 s −1 and a half life of t 1/2 ≈ 2.3 hours, figures that are often rounded to k ~ 10 −4 s ...
Here k is the first-order rate constant, having dimension 1/time, [A](t) is the concentration at a time t and [A] 0 is the initial concentration. The rate of a first-order reaction depends only on the concentration and the properties of the involved substance, and the reaction itself can be described with a characteristic half-life. More than ...
The biological half-lives "alpha half-life" and "beta half-life" of a substance measure how quickly a substance is distributed and eliminated. Physical optics: The intensity of electromagnetic radiation such as light or X-rays or gamma rays in an absorbent medium, follows an exponential decrease with distance into the absorbing medium.
Iron rusting has a low reaction rate. This process is slow. Wood combustion has a high reaction rate. This process is fast. The reaction rate or rate of reaction is the speed at which a chemical reaction takes place, defined as proportional to the increase in the concentration of a product per unit time and to the decrease in the concentration of a reactant per unit time. [1]
Chemical kinetics, also known as reaction kinetics, is the branch of physical chemistry that is concerned with understanding the rates of chemical reactions. It is different from chemical thermodynamics , which deals with the direction in which a reaction occurs but in itself tells nothing about its rate.