Rate of reaction between marble chips and acid.

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Gareth Brown                Science coursework

Rate of reaction between marble chips and acid.

Introduction

In this experiment I will be testing the rate of reaction of marble chips and acid. The by-product is CO2 and we will be testing how much CO2 is given off.

The marble chips are made out of limestone (CaCO3) with one of the two acids available: Hydrochloric (HCL) and Sulphuric (H2SO4)

Factors

The factors that could affect the rate of reaction of my experiment are as follows:

·
Concentration of acid

This could affect the rate of reaction because the higher the concentration of the acid then the more acid particles per 40cm3 so more collisions per second and then there will be more successful collisions per second.

·
Temperature of the acid

If the starting temperature of the acid is different each time the speed at which the acid particles collide with the marble chips will increase more the higher the temperature goes. This means the acid particles move with more energy, which means they will collide with the marble with more energy, which will give more successful collisions per second.

·
Surface area of the marble chips

If the marble had a bigger surface area each time the experiment was done, then the acid particles will have a bigger area to collide with, so more collisions will occur every second and the more collisions per second than the more successful collisions per second.

·
Type of acid used

If you changed the type of acid then the rate of reaction would change. Hydrochloric, Sulphuric all would produce a different rate of reaction, so if I do change the type of acid then all three kinds would produce a different set of results.

All of these factors will change the rate of reaction because of the Collision Theory. This is a theory that is used to predict the rate of a reaction. The Collision Theory is based on the idea that for a chemical reaction to take place, it is necessary for the reacting particles to collide with each other with enough energy to break or form new bonds between the other particles, which is called a successful collision. If when they collide and they do not have enough energy to break or form new bonds then they will simple bounce of each other, causing an unsuccessful collision.

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Key factor

I have chosen to use the concentration of the acid as my factor that I will change. I chose this because several different concentrations can be made up before the experiment I will be able to make them accurately.

There will be several different concentrations of acid, which will give me a wide range of results, which will be reliable and reproducible.

Preliminary work

I have done some experiments testing out the two acids. We have tested the two reactions to see how much CO2 is given if we counted the amount of bubbles in one minute, ...

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