Why does increasing the surface area cause a reaction to proceed more quickly?

• A. It decreases the activation energy required for the reaction to occur.
• B. It raises the temperature of the reactants, providing more energy for the reaction.
• C. It changes the chemical identity of the reactants, making them more reactive.
• D. It increases the number of particles exposed to react, leading to more frequent collisions.

Answer: (D)

Verified step by step guidance

1. Understand that the rate of a chemical reaction depends on how often reactant particles collide with enough energy to react.
2. Recognize that increasing the surface area means breaking a solid reactant into smaller pieces or spreading it out, which exposes more particles to the other reactants.
3. More exposed particles lead to a higher frequency of collisions between reactant molecules or atoms.
4. Since reaction rate is proportional to the number of effective collisions per unit time, increasing surface area increases the reaction rate.
5. Note that increasing surface area does not change activation energy, temperature, or chemical identity; it simply allows more particles to participate in collisions.