Chapter 20, Problem 5RQ

To determine

The reason for the fact that all the collisions between the reactant molecules do not lead to the product formation.

Answer to Problem 5RQ

All the collisions of the reacting species do not have the proper orientation and sufficient amount of energy and thus all the collisions between the reactant molecules do not lead to the product formation.

Explanation of Solution

The process of the conversion of reactant species into the product species is called a chemical reaction. The chemical species are in a random motion during a reaction process and show continuous collisions of the reacting species to form the product species.

The collisions of reacting molecules have some basic requirements and they are as follows;

1) The collision taking place between the reacting species must have the proper orientation for the formation of the respective product molecules.

2) The collision of reacting molecules must have a sufficient amount of energy to overcome the required amount activation energy of a reaction process to form the product molecules.

If and only if the collision satisfies the above conditions then that particular collision will lead to the product formation and rest all other collisions are wasted and hence all the collisions don’t lead to the formation of a product.

Conclusion:

Since all the collisions do not have the proper orientation and sufficient amount of energy, and thus, all the collisions between the reactant molecules do not lead to the product formation.