Reaction coordinate diagrams are important tools discussed in both general chemistry and upper-level chemistry courses that are used to display the energetic changes of a chemical reaction. These diagrams provide information on the speed of the reaction, the mechanism by which the reaction occurs, and the thermodynamic stability of the species involved. Speed and mechanism are pertinent to the topic of chemical kinetics, and student misconceptions about chemical kinetics have been well-documented. A common finding in this body of literature is that students often confuse thermodynamic information and kinetic information. These two topics, while different, are related to each other in numerous ways, and undergraduate chemistry students experience difficulty in understanding how to differentiate them from one another.  In this study, we investigate how students analyze reaction coordinate diagrams so that we can understand what information they derive from them, and how they differentiate the kinetic and mechanistic information embedded in the diagrams from the thermodynamic information. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with general chemistry students, and preliminary findings will be reported.

Investigating students’ conceptions of chemical kinetics and reaction coordinate diagrams

255th National Meeting (2018)

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