(a) Based on the following reaction profile, how many intermediates are formed in the reaction A→D?

Video transcript

Hello, everyone. Today, we have the following problem using the reaction profile given below, determine the number of intermediates formed into reaction W two Z. So first, we need to realize that this is going to be a three step mechanism. First, we're going to have W leading to X, we're going to have X being to Y. And lastly, we're going to have Y leading to Z R three steps. And so we can confidently say that the intermediate is not going to be the reactant nor the product. So W and Z are not going to be intermediates and it's also not going to be the same as the transition state because it can be stable, identified and isolated. Unlike the transition state, in essence, it's formed in one step of direction and consumed in the next. That's gonna leave us with X. And why in this given reaction profile, X and Y are the species that are formed in previous elementary reactions but then consumed in the next. And that can be seen in throughout this process, we have W two X, it's being produced, however, it's being consumed and transformed into Y and then Y is being transformed into Z. So X and Y are going to be between these mac what we call maximum, that's going to be the highest peak of our energy diagram. And so this is actually going to represent our transition state. So we have this big transition state here. This is going to be our second transition state. Our first is going to be this first peak and then our last transition state is going to be the third peak, the intermediates, as we said before, we're going to be our X and our Y. So we have our first intermediate and we have our second intermediate. So overall, there are going to be two intermediate in this reaction profile. And with that, we have answered the question overall, I hope this helped. And until next time.