Edexcel GCSE Chemistry 1CH0
Key Concepts in Chemistry
States of Matter and Mixtures
Chemical Changes
Extracting Metals and Equilibria
Transition Metals, Quantitative Chemistry and Industrial Processes
Groups in the Periodic Table
Rates of Reaction and Energy Changes
Fuels and Earth Science
Chemical Analysis, Organic Chemistry and Materials
Rates of Reaction and Energy Changes
Activation energy and reaction profiles
- 3 things to know
- Paper 2
Overview
What activation energy is and why methane needs a spark to react, how temperature and the size of the activation energy affect reactions, and reading reaction profiles for exothermic, endothermic and catalysed reactions.
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Explain the term activation energy.
Explain why a mixture of methane and air does not react until a spark is supplied.
Questions from this subtopic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
Explain the term activation energy.
Model answer
Activation energy is the minimum energy that colliding particles must have for a reaction to take place.
- 2
What happens to particles that collide with less than the activation energy?
Model answer
They simply bounce apart again without reacting.
- 3
Explain why a mixture of methane and air does not react until a spark is supplied.
Model answer
The particles need the activation energy before they can react, and the spark supplies it.
- 4
How does raising the temperature affect the number of particles that have at least the activation energy?
Model answer
More particles have at least the activation energy, so a greater proportion of collisions are successful.
- 5
Would a reaction with a low activation energy tend to be fast or slow at room temperature?
Model answer
Fast, because most collisions already carry enough energy to cause a reaction.
- 6
On a reaction profile, what quantity is shown up the vertical axis and what is shown along the horizontal axis?
Model answer
Energy is shown up the vertical axis and the progress of the reaction along the horizontal axis.
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