Posted: Dec 26, 2012 12:02 pm
I'm revising for my exams, which are coming up in January. One of the things that's come up is this mechanism:
Iodine reacts with propanone to form an iodoketone. We're looking at the rate of reaction, which is given by this:
rate = k[CH3COCH3][H+]
So is the first step the rate-determining step? Or is it the third step?
The textbook says it's the third step, but I came across a forum full of teachers saying that it's much easier to teach that it's the first step. Also, my chemistry teacher said that that mechanism is wrong and gave me another version, but I lost it.
So now I'm really confused. The mechanism looks okay to me, and I can understand why it's the third step that's slowest (because you have to break a C-H bond) but is it?
Iodine reacts with propanone to form an iodoketone. We're looking at the rate of reaction, which is given by this:
rate = k[CH3COCH3][H+]
So is the first step the rate-determining step? Or is it the third step?
The textbook says it's the third step, but I came across a forum full of teachers saying that it's much easier to teach that it's the first step. Also, my chemistry teacher said that that mechanism is wrong and gave me another version, but I lost it.
So now I'm really confused. The mechanism looks okay to me, and I can understand why it's the third step that's slowest (because you have to break a C-H bond) but is it?