Question

Help please? :)

Give two things that could be done to increase the rate of a reaction and explain why they increase the rate.

Answer 1

Increasing the pressure will increase the reaction rate because it will force the particles to be closer together, and so the likelihood of particles colliding increases. Increasing the temperature can also increase the rate of a reaction because the particles will be more energised and more likely to move around and collide.

Answer 2

Increase the temperature (explained in the Collisions Theory) causes the particles to move faster (and so collide more frequently) and also have a higher energy so the collision is more likely to end in a reaction (as two particles must have a minimum energy in order to react).
Increasing the surface area increases the number of particles that can collide and so increases the rate of reaction.
The same is true with increasing pressure/ concentration.
Adding a catalyst lowers the energy required for a reaction to occur so increases the rate of reaction.