Rate of Reaction Factors Practical

Flowchart nodes

• Gas Syringe Method (image/png)

• Carbon dioxide collects in the syringe

• Hydrochloric acid and calcium carbonate react in the beaker

• Different factors can be varied in order to investigate their effect on the rate of reaction:

• Surface area to volume ratio: By repeating with marble chips and then calcium carbonate powder

• Temperature: By repeating with HCl at different temperatures

• Concentration: By repeating with concentrated and then dilute hydrochloric acid

• Volume of gas collected is a measure of how much reaction has progressed

• Measure the volume in syringe at several different times after the beginning of experiment

• Plot Volume against Time

• Only change one variable at a time

• Start the timer as soon as the calcium carbonate is dropeed into the hydrochloric acid

• The gradient of the volume vs time graph is the rate of reaction

• If the gradient is steeper, the rate is faster

• The gradient can be calculated by drawing a tangent to the curve at any point

• To investigate the effect that catalysts can have on the rate of reaction:

• Same experimental set-up but replace HCl and marble chips with hydrogen peroxide

• Hydrogen peroxide decomposes naturally to hydrogen and oxygen but the rate of reaction can be increased using catalysts

• Repeat the experiment using various catalysts such as manganese oxide, lead oxide, liver