Which of the following does not change the energy of the reactants relative to the activation energy?
reducing the temperature
adding a catalyst
increasing the surface area
increasing the temperature

Option (c) is the correct answer.

Explanation:

Activation energy is defined as the minimum amount of energy required by reactants to initiate a chemical reaction.

A catalyst helps in increasing the rate of a reaction by lowering the activation energy barrier.

Whereas when we reduce the temperature then there will be decrease in energy of reactant molecules. On the other hand, increasing the temperature will increase the energy of reactants.

Increasing the surface area will not have any affect on activation energy.

Hence, we can conclude that increasing the surface area does not change the energy of the reactants relative to the activation energy.