Why is rate in chemical synthesis important?
Whilst a chemical reaction may be favourable in terms of energetics (e.g. a relatively large & negative enthalpy and large entropy changes of reaction) it may proceed slowly for physical or molecular-topological reasons. For example, the substitution of one functional group by another on an organic molecule may be energitcally very favourable, but the presence of other hindering functional groups minimise the chance of reactions happening, thus leading to a slow reaction. Reaction rate, therefore, may be viewed as important in chemical synthesis for commercial reasons. A slow reaction will effectively deliver low yields and may require expensive catalysts or increased energy costs to increase reaction rates.
