Investigating the Effects of Surface Area on the Rate of Reaction

The first 200 words of this essay...

Investigating the Effects of Surface Area on the Rate of Reaction

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Aim:

To study the effects of changing the surface area on the rate of a chemical reaction

Hypothesis:

This hypothesis is based on the Collision Theory, where in order to react, the two particles involved must:

1. Collide with each other

2. The collision must be energetic enough to overcome the activation energy of the reaction

3. The collision must bring the reactive parts of the molecule into contact the correct way â they must collide with appropriate geometry (the reactive parts)

Considering that the surface area of a particle is a factor that mainly affects the collision rate of particles, it would be safe to assume that as the surface area increases, the reaction rate increases.

The graph should turn out to be something like this:

1. the reaction is the fastest at the start

2. The reaction is slowing down here

3. No more product is formed

Amount of product

Time

Variables:

Variable

Factor

What is manipulated