The Slow Step Writes the Rate Law

You'll learnhow the slowest elementary step sets the rate law, and why intermediates can't appear in it.

A mechanism has several steps, but only one of them is in charge: the reaction can go no faster than its slowest step, and that step alone writes the rate law. Watch it get derived, and then watch it get refused. Twelve short steps; press Next for each one.

12 STEPS · 6 QUICK CHECKS · NO₂ + CO → NO + CO₂ · v4

two gates in series · one slow step · one rate law

Before you start

What you're looking at

Two elementary steps for NO₂ + CO → NO + CO₂, stacked in the order they happen, with the overall equation below.

The question

What is the rate law, and is it just k[NO₂][CO] read off the overall equation?

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