https://doi.org/10.1351/goldbook.C01033
A process that results in the interconversion of
chemical species
. Chemical reactions may be elementary reactions
or stepwise reactions
. (It should be noted that this definition includes experimentally observable interconversions of conformers.) Detectable chemical reactions normally involve sets of molecular entities
as indicated by this definition, but it is often conceptually convenient to use the term also for changes involving single molecular entities (i.e. 'microscopic chemical events').See also:
identity reaction