E1.5 Overall Reaction Order

Example 1.5: Isobutylene decomposed to its products and the following data were obtained.

Estimate the overall order of reaction.

Solution: For a chemical reaction that is nth order, a plot of ln(-r_A) versus ln(C_A) yields a straight line (Equation 1.25).

X = ln(C_A)

Y = ln(-r_A)

A plot of Y versus X yields a straight line (Equation 1.25).

Slope (α) = 2

Intercept (I) = -8.5

Reaction rate constant, k = exp(I) = 2.02 ´ 10^-4 L/(mol·s).