Question

Defend the following statement or provide counterexamples for which it does not hold:

The reaction rate of any forward reaction that can occur will always increase as a function of temperature.

Answer 1

The rate of a reaction is the speed at which a chemical reaction happens. If a reaction has a low rate, that means the molecules combine at a slower speed than a reaction with a high rate.when you raise the temperature of a system, the molecules bounce around a lot more. They have more energy. When they bounce around more, they are more likely to collide. That fact means they are also more likely to combine. When you lower the temperature, the molecules are slower and collide less. That temperature drop lowers the rate of the reaction. To the chemistry lab! Sometimes you will mix solutions in ice so that the temperature of the system stays cold and the rate of reaction is slower