Question

How do you find the activation energy given two temperatures?

Answer 1

Hint: The bare minimum additional energy needed by a reactive molecule to transform into a product is known as activation energy. It is also known as the minimal energy required to energise or activate molecules or atoms in order for them to engage in a chemical reaction or transformation.

Complete Step by Step Solution:
The link between the activation energy and the rate at which a reaction proceeds is quantitatively explained by the Arrhenius equation. The connection can be used to determine the activation energy from the equation.
\[k=A{{e}^{-{{E}_{\text{a}}}/(RT)}}\]

The quantity of energy required to start a chemical reaction is known as activation energy.
Plotting ln k, the rate constant, vs. 1/T will allow us to determine the activation energy (the inverse of the temperature in Kelvin.) A straight line will result from the plot, and its equation is given by the following:
\[\text{m =}\frac{\text{ - }{{\text{E}}_{\text{a}}}}{\text{R}}\]
where m is the slope of the line, Ea is the activation energy, and R is the ideal gas constant of \[\text{8}\text{.314 J mo}{{\text{l}}^{\text{-1}}}{{\text{K}}^{\text{-1}}}\]. Prior to the calculation, it is crucial to convert the temperature units to K.

Note: It is frequently uncertain whether or not a reaction occurs in a single step; Theoretically, threshold barriers that are calculated by averaging across all fundamental stages are of limited use. The individual collisions taking place inside a reaction may result in a range of microscopic reaction rates. The symbol for activation energy is Ea. Kilojoules per mole (kJ/mol), joules (J), or kilocalories per mole (kcal/mol) are the most common units of measurement.