MadSci Network: Chemistry
Query:

Re: What are the effects of temperature on a process?

Date: Fri May 27 07:36:43 2005
Posted By: David Perkins, Post-doc/Fellow, Chemistry, QUT
Area of science: Chemistry
ID: 1116803943.Ch
Message:

Temperature is a measure of the kinetic energy of the molecules of a system. That is, if you increase the temperature of anything, the molecules that make up that thing speed up. Every chemical process or reaction requires molecules to collide in order for that reaction to proceed, and that collision needs to be fast enough to make it happen. Since temperature speeds up molecules, it speeds up chemical processes. All chemical processes are made faster with an increase in temperature. Of course this does not apply to the freezing or condensing of compounds. You can only speed up the freezing process by lowering the temperature.

Hope this helps.



Moderator's Note: Some reactions, particularly those dependent upon catalysis by enzymes, can be inhibited at higher temperature -- the high temperature denatures the enzymatic protein, so it can no longer perform its functions to lower the activation energy of the reaction to proceed.


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