{"id":8040,"date":"2013-09-07T00:43:17","date_gmt":"2013-09-07T00:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/?page_id=8040"},"modified":"2025-12-09T10:42:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T16:42:37","slug":"reaction-mechanisms-and-a-rate-limiting-step","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/reaction-mechanisms-and-a-rate-limiting-step\/","title":{"rendered":"Reaction Mechanisms and a Rate-Limiting Step"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Reaction Mechanisms and a Rate-Limiting Step<\/h1>\n<div class=\"lyte-wrapper fourthree\" title=\"Reaction Mechanisms and a Rate-Limiting Step\" style=\"width:420px;max-width:100%;margin:5px auto;\"><div class=\"lyMe\" id=\"WYL_xAWo__uWGww\"><div id=\"lyte_xAWo__uWGww\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-youtube-lyte\/lyteCache.php?origThumbUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FxAWo__uWGww%2Fhqdefault.jpg\" class=\"pL\"><div class=\"tC\"><div class=\"tT\">Reaction Mechanisms and a Rate-Limiting Step<\/div><\/div><div class=\"play\"><\/div><div class=\"ctrl\"><div class=\"Lctrl\"><\/div><div class=\"Rctrl\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><noscript><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/xAWo__uWGww\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-youtube-lyte\/lyteCache.php?origThumbUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FxAWo__uWGww%2F0.jpg\" alt=\"Reaction Mechanisms and a Rate-Limiting Step\" width=\"420\" height=\"295\" \/><br \/>Watch this video on YouTube<\/a><\/noscript><\/div><\/div><div class=\"lL\" style=\"max-width:100%;width:420px;margin:5px auto;\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"accordion\"><input id=\"transcript\" type=\"checkbox\" class=\"spoiler_button\" \/><label for=\"transcript\">Transcript<\/label>\n<div class=\"spoiler\" id=\"transcript-spoiler\">\n<p>A single step chemical reaction is called an elementary step. Elementary steps have simple rate laws and can be classified as unimolecular, bimolecular, or termolecular. With <strong>unimolecular<\/strong> you have a single reactant producing products.<\/p>\n<p>We could illustrate it like this. Here you have your single reactant producing products. Now, the rate law for this would be R equals the rate constant multiplied by the single reactant. Now with <strong>bimolecular<\/strong> you have two reactants producing products.<\/p>\n<p>We can illustrate it like this, A plus A or A plus B, either way they&#8217;re both producing products. The rate law would look like, either like this with the reactant being squared or with just the rate constant being multiplied by A being multiplied by B.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, we get <strong>termolecular<\/strong>. Here we have reaction&#8217;s that would look like this, with combinations of three reactants. Here we see the same three reactants or A plus two B reactants or three different reactants here.<\/p>\n<p>So, the corresponding rate laws would look like this, with A being brought to the third power or the rate constant being multiplied by A being multiplied by B taken to the second power or finally the rate constant being multiplied by reactants A, B, and C.<\/p>\n<p>Now, most chemical reactions occur in multiple elementary steps. For example, in your cell&#8217;s glucose gets broken down into pyruvic acid in a series of ten steps called glycolysis. Not all the steps occur at the same rate, some steps are fast while others are slow.<\/p>\n<p>Now, we have something called the <strong>rate limiting step<\/strong>, which is the slowest step in the overall reaction. That&#8217;s the step that is slowing the whole reaction down. Again, an elementary step is a single step chemical reaction and an elementary step has simple rate laws and can be classified as unimolecular, bimolecular, or termolecular. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reaction Mechanisms and a Rate-Limiting Step<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":{"0":"post-8040","1":"page","2":"type-page","3":"status-publish","5":"page_category-chemistry-reactions","6":"page_type-video","7":"page_domain-science"},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO Pro 4.9.8 - aioseo.com -->\n\t<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A rate-limiting step is the slowest step in any reaction mechanism process. 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