An Experiment to Investigate a Factor that Affects the Rate of Reaction between Magnesium and Sulphuric Acid.

Authors Avatar
An Experiment to Investigate a Factor that Affects the Rate of Reaction between Magnesium and Sulphuric Acid.

I want to find out what factors affect the rate of reaction between magnesium and sulphuric acid.

The factors that are likely to affect me investigation are:

* Concentration of the acid

* Surface area of the magnesium

* The temperature of the acid

* If a catalyst is used

I am going to investigate how the concentration of the acid affects the rate of reaction. I decided on this variable as it became increasingly obvious that the other 3 variables had drawbacks.

I could not investigate the surface area of the magnesium, as only two different types were available, magnesium ribbon and magnesium powder.

I decided that to investigate the temperature of the acid would be too dangerous as acid is dangerous enough but I did not want to be working with hot acid for fear of injuring others or myself.

I decided against investigating the catalysts as I am not experienced enough to know which catalysts would work in this experiment and it would take to long to find a few from the enormous number of chemicals available.

Scientific knowledge

I have scientific knowledge about rate of reactions, the collision theory and moles that may be useful in planning my investigation.

Some reactions are fast and some are slow. For example, when solutions of silver nitrate and sodium chloride are mixed the reaction is very fast but rust forming on iron is usually a very slow reaction.

It is not always enough to know just that a reaction is fast or slow. For example, in a factory that makes products from chemicals, the chemical engineers need to know exactly how fast each reaction is going and how long it takes to complete. In other words, they need to know the rate of reaction. Rate is the measure of the change that happens in a single unit of time.

The rate of reaction is the speed at which a chemical reaction proceeds. It is usually expressed in terms of the concentration (usually in moles per litre) of a reactant consumed, or product formed, in unit time; so the units would be moles per litre per second. The concentration of the reactants, the temperature of the reactants, and the presence of a catalyst may affect the rate of a reaction.
Join now!


Hydrogen ion

Mg

In this diagram, there would be many collisions between the magnesium atoms and hydrogen ions and therefore more fruitful reactions. Therefore, the reaction will be quicker than if there were fewer ions in the acid. (See diagram below)

In this diagram, there are less hydrogen ions and therefore there will be fewer collisions and fruitful collisions. This will make the reaction take longer than if there were more ions in the acid (as in above diagram)

If the reaction were entirely in the gas state, the rate would be affected by ...

This is a preview of the whole essay