What affects the reaction rate between magnesium and sulphuric acid?

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Aim

The aim of the investigation is to find out what affects the rate of reaction between Magnesium and Sulphuric Acid.

Introduction

When Magnesium reacts with Sulphuric Acid, a chemical reaction takes place and there are two products formed. These are Hydrogen (a gas) and Magnesium Sulphate (a liquid). The reaction finishes when the two reactants have finished.

The formula for this chemical reaction is Mg+H2SO4              H2+MgSO4.

Variables

There were 4 variables that we could have chosen, that would all affect our experiment and they are:

  • To use a catalyst to speed up the reaction.
  • To increase the surface area of the Magnesium.
  • To increase the temperature of the Sulphuric Acid.
  • To increase the concentration of the Sulphuric Acid.

Using a catalyst would make the reaction faster so there would be a very different reaction rate. The catalyst does not actually take part of the reaction and it remains chemically unchanged. Catalysts are specific to certain chemical reactions and there are different catalysts for different reactions.

Increasing the surface area of the Magnesium would mean an increase of reaction speed and another different reaction rate would take place here.

Increasing the temperature of the Sulphuric Acid would also make the reaction faster because the particles of the acid would be moving a lot faster. When the particles move a lot faster there is more likely to be more successful collision between the particles of the Magnesium and Sulphuric Acid.

Changing the concentration will change the reaction, either higher or lower. The higher the concentration the higher the reaction rate and obviously the reaction rate is lowered when the concentration is lower.

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I have decided to change the variable of concentration as I thought this was the easiest of the four variables to do. Using a catalyst would not have been appropriate because I do not think the results would have been so effective. I would have found temperature hard to do as there are not enough water baths available in school and I did not want to use a Bunsen Burner as it would have be hard to get the acid to an exact temperature. Finally I would have found surface area hard to do as it would have been difficult ...

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