Chemical kinetics describes how concentration and site availability together set the overall speed of a reaction.
A + Site <-> A-Site -> P + Site
rate = k[A][Site]
- Reactant conc. — number of reactant molecules diffusing through the vessel.
- Active sites — fixed reactive centres the reactant molecules must contact to convert.
- Reaction affinity — probability that a nearby reactant successfully engages a free site.
- Rate constant k — how fast an engaged reactant finishes converting to product.
This same saturating-kinetics pattern — rate rising then plateauing as sites fill — governs everything from industrial catalytic converters to drug-receptor binding.