Question

How do you find the activation energy given two temperatures?

Answer 1

Activation energy -

The amount of energy that needs to be supplied in order to proceed chemical reaction, it can also be determined by finding the rate constant of reaction at several different temperatures, therefore from the formula:

where, $\mathrm{k}$ is rate constant

$\mathrm{Ea}$ is the activation energy

$\mathrm{R}$ is gas constant

$\mathrm{T}$ is temperature in kelvin

$\mathrm{A}$ is pre-exponential factor

After applying logarithmic on both sides:

Now apply for reaction condition at two temperatures ${\mathrm{T}}_1$ and ${\mathrm{T}}_2$ which gives reaction rate constants at $k_1$ and ${\mathrm{k}}_2$

Now substract $\ln k_2$ from $\ln k_1$:

Therefore, from the above given formula, we can find activation energy form the two sets of values of rate constant and temperature.