Chemistry / Unit 9 Chem 1715 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Rate-Determining Step
Captions available
The idea
A mechanism's rate-determining step is its slowest elementary step, and the overall reaction proceeds no faster than that step allows.
In practice
Cattle through a narrow chute pass only as fast as one animal clears it, however quickly they reach the entrance.
Where people slip
Assuming a mechanism's first written step is always rate-determining is wrong — any step can be slowest, regardless of order.
Your place on the trail
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