Rate of reaction of hydrochloric acid and mangesium ribbon.

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Rate of rate of hydrochloric acid and mangesium ribbon

Introduction

In the reaction between hydrochloric acid and magnesium ribbon, the hydrochloric acid will dissolve the magnesium and produce hydrogen gas.

All chemical reactions involve reactants which when mixed may cause a chemical reaction which will make products.

In my case the reactants are hydrochloric acid and magnesium ribbon. The chemical reaction takes place when the magnesium ribbon is dropped into the hydrochloric acid. The products that are formed during this reaction are hydrogen gas and magnesium chloride. The formula equation for this experiment is:

Mg + 2HCl (r) MgCl2 + H2

Magnesium + Hydrochloric acid (r) Magnesium Chloride + Hydrogen

( s ) ( aq ) ( aq ) ( g )

Magnesium will react with hydrochloric acid, because it is higher in the reactivity series that hydrogen. When the two chemicals react a displacement reaction will take place and the magnesium will displace the hydrogen in the hydrochloric acid forming magnesium chloride and hydrogen gas.

Reactivity Series

K (potassium)

Na (sodium

Li (lithium) all to dangerous to react with a strong acid

Ba (barium)

Ca (Calcium)

..

Mg (magnesium) -

Al (aluminium) manageable metals

Zn (zinc) these metals will react with hydrochloric acid as they

Fe (iron) they are higher in the reactivity series than hydrogen

Sn (tin) and so a displacement reaction will take place

Pb (lead) ¯

..

H (hydrogen)

..

Cu (copper)

Hg (mercury) none of these metals will react with hydrochloric

Ag (silver) acid as they are all lower in the reactivity series than

Al (gold) hydrogen, therefore a displacement reaction will not

happen

Depending on certain factors the rate that this reaction will take place will either increase or decrease. The factors that may affect the rate of reaction are as follows:

· Temperature of the Hydrochloric Acid

· Mass of the magnesium ribbon used

· Concentration of the Hydrochloric acid

· Surface area of the magnesium ribbon used

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.

Ways that I could record my experiment

There are several way which I could record my experiment. The possible ways are as follows:

Amount of gas evolved

I could use a gas syringe to collect the gas that will evolve from my experiment. I could use these results to calculate the initial rate of reaction.

The weight before and after the experiment

I could put the conical flask with the chosen volume of hydrochloric acid onto a set of accurate electronic scales and record the weight of it. I could then drop a piece of magnesium into the conical flask and measure the decrease in weight at chosen intervals. The weight of the experiment will decrease because as the hydrogen in the hydrochloric acid is being displaced it is being released and will float up and out the conical flask, the weight change will not be very big, but there will be one.

How long the magnesium takes to dissolve

I could measure the length of time it takes for the magnesium to dissolve. The only problem with recording my experiment this way is that I could only calculate the average rate of reaction and not the initial rate of reaction

Ways to measure the rate of the reaction:

Average rate of reaction

Initial rate of reaction

I will be using the initial rate to calculate the rate of reaction as it can calculate the true rate and not the average rate of reaction.

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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 100cm3 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 magnesium ribbon will increase more the higher the temperature goes. This means the acid particles move with ...

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