Kinetics and Mechanism

Book excerpt: The third edition of a classic text originally by Frost and Pearson, that describes the fundamental principles and established practices that apply to the study and the rates and mechanisms of homogeneous chemical reactions in the gas phase and in solution. Incorporates new advances made during the past 20 years in the study of individual molecular collisions by molecular-beam, laser applications to experimental kinetics, theoretical treatments of reaction rates and our understanding of the principles that govern rates of reaction in solution. Presents numerous examples of the deduction of mechanism from experiment, including intimate details such as stereochemistry and the dependence of reaction pathway on the exact energy states of reacting particles.