How will the concentration of Hydrochloric Acid affect the rate of reaction with magnesium ribbon?

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How will the concentration of Hydrochloric Acid affect the rate of reaction with magnesium ribbon?

Introduction:

The equation below shows the reaction between Hydrochloric acid and Magnesium ribbon. As you can see, hydrogen is one of the waste products of the reaction. To test for hydrogen we can collect the gas is a test tube and expose it to a lit splint, if hydrogen is present then the gas will go ‘pop’, it is known as ‘The squeaky pop test’.

2HCl + Mg                       MgCl   + H

Hydrochloric acid + Magnesium                          Magnesium Chloride + Hydrogen

I have decided to investigate how different concentrations of Hydrochloric acid affect the rate of reaction when exposed to Magnesium ribbon. I have chosen this method to use as I think it is a very simple way to collect the necessary data required to answer the question that I am investigating.

Prediction:

I think that the more concentrated that the acid is, the quicker the reaction will take place, and the less concentrated the acid is the longer the reaction will last. For a reaction to occur the reactant particles must collide. Only a certain fraction of the total collisions cause chemical change; these are called successful collisions. The successful collisions have sufficient energy (activation energy) at the moment of impact to break the existing bonds and form new bonds, resulting in the products of the reaction. Increasing the concentration of the reactants and raising the temperature bring about more collisions and therefore more successful collisions, increasing the rate of reaction, therefore producing a faster reaction.

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Preliminary Work:

For the preliminary work I have followed the method that I will use in the final experiment. I have experimented with different amounts of magnesium ribbon to find out which quantity will be the most efficient to use. If too little magnesium was used, the reactions would be too quick and would be very difficult to record the results, and if too much magnesium was used then the reaction would last for too long.

I came to the conclusion that 5cm of Magnesium ribbon would be a sufficient amount to use, as it didn’t react ...

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