Sodium cyanide reacts with chloroethane by the following equation. When the concentration of cyanide ion is tripled, the reaction rate triples. When the concentration of chloroethane doubles, the reaction rate doubles. What is the overall kinetic order of the reaction?
Write the rate equation for the reaction.
The rate of reaction is first order in both chloroethane and cyanide ion, so it is second order overall. The rate equation is:
rate = k [CH₃CH₂Cl][CN^{−}].