How do you increase the rate of a reaction?

There are multiple ways of increasing the rate of a reaction, but overall, increasing the number of particles successful collisions will increase the rate of reaction. This can be done by increasing the temperature resulting in more particles having a higher activation energy, increasing the number of successful collisions per unit time. Increasing the surface area of a solid or the concentration of a solution will have the same effect.

A catalyst can also be used, which provides an alternative pathway with lower activation energy, meaning more particles have activation energy which is greater than that required to react, and there are more successful collisions per unit time.