Analysis of consecutive pseudo-first-order reactions. I: An evaluation of available methods to calculate the rate...

Co-product or co-reactant data is commonly used to obtain the hydrolysis rate constants for two-step consecutive pseudo-first-order reactions. Different methods to calculate the rate constants from experimental data were evaluated using data simulated with and without a +/- 2% random error. The results of this analysis indicate that the ability to determine the value and accuracy of the rate constants obtained by the different methods depends on the k2/k1 ratio. In certain ranges of k2/k1 ratios, erroneous results are obtained which have occasionally led to incorrect conclusions by authors in the literature.