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9.4 Thermodynamic and Kinetic Control

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Kinetic Control

A lot of reactions that are thermodynamically favorable don’t actually occur in real life. For example, the reaction of diamond turning into graphite is thermodynamically favorable at room temperature. However, these reactions happen very slowly and aren’t visible due to kinetic control.

If we recall the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution, only particles with high enough energies will be able to react to form the products, meaning that for certain reactions, the percentage of particles with that required activation energy will be small enough to be considered negligible.

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In this unit

11 lessons

  1. 9.1Introduction to EntropyPreview lesson
  2. 9.2Absolute Entropy and Entropy ChangePreview lesson
  3. 9.3Gibbs Free Energy and Thermodynamic FavorabilityPreview lesson
  4. 9.4Thermodynamic and Kinetic ControlThis lesson
  5. 9.5Free Energy and EquilibriumPreview lesson
  6. 9.6Free Energy of DissolutionPreview lesson
  7. 9.7Coupled ReactionsPreview lesson
  8. 9.8Galvanic (Voltaic) and Electrolytic CellsPreview lesson
  9. 9.9Cell Potential and Free EnergyPreview lesson
  10. 9.10Cell Potential Under Nonstandard ConditionsPreview lesson
  11. 9.11Electrolysis and Faraday’s LawPreview lesson

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