

If a freshly prepared solution of cisplatin has a concentration of 0.053 M, what will be the concentration of cisplatin after 5 half-lives? after 10 half-lives? What is the percent completion of the reaction after 5 half-lives? after 10 half-lives? Calculate the half-life for the hydrolysis reaction under these conditions. The anticancer drug cisplatin hydrolyzes in water with a rate constant of 1.5 × 10 −3 min −1 at pH 7.0 and 25☌.

This becomes evident when we rearrange the integrated rate law for a first-order reaction ( Equation 14.21) to produce the following equation: The half-life of a first-order reaction is independent of the concentration of the reactants. This is not true for zeroth- and second-order reactions. The half-life of a first-order reaction under a given set of reaction conditions is a constant. If two reactions have the same order, the faster reaction will have a shorter half-life, and the slower reaction will have a longer half-life.

Thus the half-life of a reaction is the time required for the reactant concentration to decrease from 0 to 0/2. This period of time is called the half-life The period of time it takes for the concentration of a reactant to decrease to one-half its initial value. Another approach to describing reaction rates is based on the time required for the concentration of a reactant to decrease to one-half its initial value.
