Mechanism of Reaction

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A balanced chemical equation represents the overall result of a chemical reaction. However, at the molecular level, more than one reaction step might be involved. Most reactions can be broken down into a sequence of elementary reactions. This breaking down of a reaction into a sequence of elementary reactions means elucidating the reaction mechanism. For e.g., the reaction of nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) with carbon monoxide (CO) is given by the equation

This gas phase reaction is believed to occur in two steps with the formation of nitrogen trioxide (NO₃ ) as the intermediate.

The presence of NO₃ is inferred from the visible spectrum of NO₃. The reaction is found to have the rate law, r = k [NO₂]². The proposed reaction mechanism agrees with the rate law. So, the reaction of nitrogen dioxide with carbon monoxide, most probably occurs via the two elementary reactions mentioned above.