Research about rate of reaction.

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Joe Gill 10DJ

RATE

OF

REACTION

RESEARCH ABOUT RATE OF REACTION

Chemical reactions take place at different rates.  Some reactions take place very quickly e.g. explosions, others happen very slowly e.g. the rusting of iron.  Many more reactions have a moderate rate.

For a chemical reaction to take place the reactants must collide.  However, not all collisions are successful.  For a reaction to take place the reactants must collide with more than a specific amount of energy.  This energy is different for all reactions and is called the activation energy.  The rate of any reaction depends upon:

 

  • THE NUMBER OF SUCESSFUL COLLISIONS PER SECOND

The more successful collisions there are per second, the faster the rate of reactions.  The rate of a chemical reaction can be affected by a number of different factors.  These are:

 

  1. Temperature

Increasing the temperature of the reactants increases the rate of reaction.  This is because, as the reactants get hotter they gain energy and move faster.  This means the particles collide more often and with more energy, and there are more successful collisions per second, so the rate increases.

LOWER TEMPERATURE, FEWER                              HIGHER TEMPERATURE,

COLLISIONS PER SECOND                                         MORE COLLISIONS PER

LOWER RATE                                                                SECOND-HIGHER RATE

We can also explain the increase in rate using energy level diagrams like the one shown below.

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At the higher temperature there are more particles with more energy than the activation energy, therefore there are more successful collisions per second and the reaction is greater.

  1. Concentration, particle size and pressure in gases

Increasing the concentration of a solution increases the rate of reaction.  This is because, the higher the concentration, the more particles there are per unit volume.  Therefore there are more collisions, hence more successful collisions per second and rate increases.  Increasing the pressure of gases ...

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