How does the concentration of hydrochloric Acid affect the rate of reaction?

Authors Avatar

Phillip Harrison

Chemistry Coursework – Investigation

How does the concentration of hydrochloric Acid affect the rate of reaction?

Hydrochloric Acid (aq) + Magnesium (s) → Magnesium Chloride (aq) + Hydrogen (g)

Factors affecting the rate of reaction

There are many factors that have an affect on the rate of a chemical reaction. The speed of reaction means how fast the reactants change into the desired product.  The consequence of this is that more of the products are made in a certain period of time if it has a high rate of reaction. Factors can only have two affects on a reaction making the reaction happen faster or slower depending on how it interferes with the reaction, the factors never change the outcome of the reaction, the final product. This ability to change the rate of the reaction enables us to control reactions and predict how changing variables affects the experiment.

Rate of reaction =              1      _

                                 Time Taken

Reacting chemicals must either:

  • Collide with each other.
  • Collide with enough energy to break the existing bonds.

The energy required to break these bonds is called the Activation Energy (EA)

There are four main factors that affect reaction these are:

  • Temperature
  • Use of a catalyst
  • Concentration
  • Surface area

Temperature

When the temperature is increased the reactant molecules move around faster with a greater amount of energy. This means there will be more successful collisions because it is the amount of energy in the molecules that determines whether a reaction is more successful. More successful collisions resulting in reactants get used up quicker resulting in the reaction time decreasing.

Join now!

Catalyst

A catalyst affects the reaction rate by lowering the activation energy for the reaction. This means that more collisions are successful because it is easier to reach activation energy. A catalyst does not get used up during a reaction. It can then be used again, and again.

Surface area

Grinding up a solid into smaller chunks creates a larger surface area by making the surface area in contact with a liquid or a solid bigger – Therefore more collisions can occur which increases the number of successful reactions thus speeding up the reaction.

...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Here's what a teacher thought of this essay

Avatar

This piece of course work is clear and concise. It is generally well written with high quality data for the concentrations chosen. The range of concentrations limits the conclusions that can be drawn. The main issue with this piece of coursework is that is does not address a lot of the key elements required to achieve a good grade. Improvements including key elements that have been omitted are suggested throughout.