To understand how a reaction of this type occur, you have to remember that:
-To occur the formation of the product, the system itself have to present a
negative Gibbs free energy. The :delta: G it's a function that express the spontaneity of the reaction, in other words, if the reaction is energetically favorable or not.
So, assuming that we have the reagents (
A and
B )and mixing this two it's formed a product (
C), we can determine if the reaction is occuring in differents times calculating*
:delta: G/ :delta: t.
Considering the idea that the mechanism involved in a energetically favorable reaction may take differents steps (and some of this steps are yet studied by cientists), to tell which step governs the equilibrium you have to talk about a specific reaction (and still would require a detailed study on the reaction in question).
In the equilibrium (you have to remember yourself) that the quantity of reagents and products are nearly constant. So, even in a heterogeneous reaction the equilibrium have the interconversion of
C to
A e
B. The product will be obtained in the system if it's energy is lower than the energy of the reagents.
I hope this helps. If I told you something wrong someone will came here and answer your question better
Bye-bye o/