Chemical reactivity is the tendency of a species to undergo a specified chemical reaction under specified conditions. A meaningful comparison identifies the reacting partner, solvent or phase, temperature, and measured outcome.
Thermodynamic favorability and reaction speed are different: a transformation may lower Gibbs free energy yet proceed slowly because its activation energy is high. A catalyst can change that barrier without changing the equilibrium constant. Reactivity therefore connects molecular electronic structure and geometry with both chemical thermodynamics and chemical kinetics.
A chemical substance is chemically inert relative to specified conditions when it does not readily undergo the relevant chemical reactions. The conditions and possible reaction partners matter; the term does not assert the impossibility of every chemical reaction.
Articles by others on the same topic
There are currently no matching articles.