The thermal decomposition of nitryl chloride, NO2Cl, is believed to occur by the following mechanism: NO2Cl1g2 ¡ k1 NO21g2 + Cl1g2 Cl1g2 + NO2Cl1g2 ¡ k2 NO21g2 + Cl21g2 (c) What rate law is predicted by this mechanism if the first step is rate-determining?

Video transcript

Hello everyone today. We are being given the following problem. Consider the hypothetical formation of X, Y. Z from X. Y. And Z. With the following reaction mechanism predicted the rate law of the reaction. Given that the first step is the slow step. So firstly before we do that, we want to note that when a reaction mechanism is given, the rate law can be determined using the slow set. So the rate law is determined by the slow step. And so we have this first step right here. And it's important to note that the rate law only involves react ints. So it only involves reactant. So if we look at our chemical reaction, we have our X. Y plus our X. Y. To give us X sub two, Y sub two. That's a slow step. We'll just label that as the slow step. And so since the rate law only involves reactant, we can say that the rate is going to be equal to a constant K times our first reactant, which is xy times our second reactant which is also X. Y. And simplified, this is going to be the rate is equal to a constant K times X Y squared, since there are two of them. And so with that we have the rate law for the reaction overall. I hope this helped. And until next time