Investigating the Rates of Reactions

Authors Avatar

Investigating the Rates of Reactions

Aim: My aim is to find out how concentration of water with sulphuric acid affects the rate of reaction when mixed with magnesium.

Prediction: I predict that if the concentration of sulphuric acid to water is high, then the reaction will be quicker because there are more sulphuric acid particles in the solution for the magnesium particles to collide with. I also predict that the solution will give off hydrogen. The chemical reaction, which will take place is going to be exothermic as it will give out heat energy as it is reacting.

Method: Firstly, I will half fill a water trough with water and will fill a measuring tube with water and invert it in the trough so that no water comes out. Then I will measure 1 molar of sulphuric acid, which will be 100ml and 3cm of a magnesium strip. I will put the sulphuric acid in a conical flask and then I will add the magnesium to the solvent. Quickly, I will put a rubber bung on the flask and will start the timer. As the rubber bung has a gas tube on it connected to the measuring tube, the reactants in the flask will let off hydrogen, which will go through the gas tube and into the measuring tube. It will cause the water in the measuring tube to go out of the tube, so the tube will be filled with hydrogen. I will stop the timer once the measuring tube has totally filled up with hydrogen. I will then repeat this experiment another 4 times but with different concentrations of sulphuric acid to water, (4:1, 3:2, 2:3 and 1:4), for example 4:1 would mean I would put in 80ml of sulphuric acid and 20ml of water. I will then repeat the whole experiment again to make sure I get accurate results. I will keep the experiment fair by making sure the conical flask I use, is always washed and dried after each experiment so that there won’t be too much or too little of a reactant in the solution because this could change the concentration of water and sulphuric acid.

Join now!

Factors that affect rates of reaction: The rate of a reaction depends on mainly 6 things; temperature, concentration, if catalysts are present, volume of the liquid, size of container and size of particles. The rates of chemical reactions vary greatly, for example rusting of iron is a very slow process although explosions are extremely fast reactions. For a chemical reaction to take place, the particles of the reactants must collide with each other and the collisions must have enough energy to break reactant bonds and form products. The higher the number of successful collisions, the faster the rate of ...

This is a preview of the whole essay