The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.
(c)1998-2002; (c)2002 by Gale. Gale is an imprint of The Gale Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Gale and Design and Thomson Learning are trademarks used herein under license.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: "Social Concerns", "Thematic Overview", "Techniques", "Literary Precedents", "Key Questions", "Related Titles", "Adaptations", "Related Web Sites". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
All other sections in this Literature Study Guide are owned and copyrighted by BookRags, Inc.
A crucial conceptual element of the transition state theory, activated complex is an unstable, high-energy grouping of atoms. According to transition state theory, there is an intermediate point, in a chemical reaction, when the bonds of the reactants have not been quite broken, and the reaction product's new bonds have not yet been formed. The entity reflecting that point is the activated complex. For example, in a HI + Cl reaction, which yields HCl + I, the I-H-Cl group of atoms appears during the reaction: this is an activated complex. Since, as transition state theory posits, a chemical reaction requires a specific level of energy, known as the activation energy, every initiated reaction is not automatically completed. If a reaction is successful, the activated complex will yield the product; if the reaction process cannot be completed due to insufficient energy, the activated complex will revert to the original reactants. In our example, the I-H-Cl group would become HI and Cl. Michael Polanyi (1891-1976) and Henry Eyring (1901-1981), who developed the transition state theory in the 1920s and 1930s, postulated that every chemical reaction goes through the activated complex phase.