Reaction intermediate (Intermediate)

When a series of chemical reactions occur in sequence, specific substances are formed during the process from the creation of the first reactant to the emergence of the final reaction product. These substances are called reaction intermediates (or simply intermediates). Reactions described in a chemical reaction equation are rarely completed with only one elementary reaction (a chemical reaction where one or more chemical species react directly to form products in a single step and with a single transition state), but a series of elementary reactions occur until the final reaction product is obtained. That is why all the substances resulting from each elementary reaction can be called the reaction intermediates except for the final reaction product.

Pages containing this term