It is well established that increasing the temperature, increases the rate of a reaction. That dependence can be explained by looking at what is happening on a molecular level during a reaction. You might want to go back and read up on the kinetic theory of gases before we go on.
According to collision theory, for a reaction to occur, reactant molecule must collide with sufficient energy (activation energy) and the correct orientation. Activation energy is the potential barrier that the molecule has to overcome for bonds to break and reform.
The frequency of “correct” collisions is related to the temperature, as molecules will have higher kinetic energy at higher temperatures as well as the activation energy and an orientation factor. Combining these gives us the Arrhenius equation:
We can make this equation more useful by taking the log:
We can now measure the rate at two temperatures and use this to find Ea:
