Answer to Question #130235 in General Chemistry for Kawsar

Question

What happens to the intermediate as the reaction continues?

Answer 1

A reaction intermediate is a

molecular entity that is formed from the reactants and reacts further to give the directly observed products of a chemical reaction.

For instance, for such a reaction;

$A+B\to C+D$

The following elementary steps are considered.

$A+B\to X$

$X\to C+D$

The chemical species $X$ is thus the intermediate.

Intermediates, in most instances, are short-lived and highly reactive, thus having a low concentration in the reaction mixture. Reaction intermediates are often free radicals or unstable ions.

Since reaction intermediates are short lived and seldom isolated, they do not remain in the reaction mixture.