16. Basic Principles of Kinetics

The branch of matter dynamics called chemical kinetics will be the topic of the next four chapters. Chemical kinetics is concerned with the temporal course of chemical reactions, meaning one investigates how fast the reactants are consumed or the products are formed. The goal of such investigations is to provide the means for predicting the rate of processes and to find the influencing factors that promote a desired reaction or inhibit an undesired one. In this introductory chapter we will first get to know the fundamental quantities conversion rate and rate density as well as different methods for measuring them in slow and fast reactions. In the last part of the chapter, it will be shown how the dependence of the rate density on the concentrations of reactants (and products) can be summarized by mathematical expressions called rate laws. Subsequently, the relatively simple rate laws of different types of reactions taking place in only one single step will be discussed.