Consider these two gas-phase reactions: a. AA( g) + BB( g)¡2 AB( g) b. AB( g) + CD( g)¡AC( g) + BD( g) If the reactions have identical activation barriers and are carried out under the same conditions, which one would you expect to have the faster rate?

Video transcript

Hi everyone for this problem. We're told to consider the following gas phase reactions. And we're told the two reactions are carried out under identical temperature and pressure conditions. If we assume that the activation energy for reactions is the same, which one will still proceed faster. Okay, so we're given two reactions here and we want to know which one is going to proceed faster. So we can look at symmetry here in the reactant and we can see that for reaction to their symmetry in the reactant. So the orientation factor will be greater for reaction to because of the symmetry of the reactant. A greater orientation factor results in a higher reaction rate. Okay, so answer choice to here is going to be the correct answer due to that symmetry. And that's it for this problem. I hope this was helpful.