The effect of temperature on the rate of reaction - page 1
Keywords: rate of reaction, temperature, chemistry
By abdul on 20/11/2006 17:43:08
Level: GCSE Key Stage 4 (Years 10-11)
Page Number: 1 of 8 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
The effect of temperature on the rate of reaction
Aims
In this investigation I’ll be working to know:
• How does the temperature of the mixture affect the rate of reaction between sodium thiosulphate and hydrochloric acid?
• Why does the temperature of the mixture affect the rate of reaction between sodium thiosulphate and hydrochloric acid?
Introduction
The purpose of this investigation is to see what affects the rate of reaction.
Background information
The rate of reaction varies from a reaction to another, for example explosion is a very quick reaction while the rusting of iron is slower.
For a reaction to take place the reactant particles must collide and combine with each other, this is known as the “collision theory, but they must have energy (activation energy) in order to make successful collisions. So the rate of a reaction depends on how frequent collisions occur each second.
The rate of reaction can be changed by:
• Changing the surface area of any solids involved
• Changing the concentration of any solutions involved
• Changing the pressure if gases are involved
• Changing the temperature at which it is carried out
• The use of catalyst
Changing the surface area can only affect reactions where solids are involved. By increasing the surface area the particles will have more surface area to work on, so the rate of the reaction will be faster as there is going to be more frequent collisions per second.
Changing the concentration in liquids (changing pressure in gases) can also affect the rate of reaction. Concentration means that there are more particles of reactants knocking about between the water molecules and pressure also means that there are more reactant particles moving in the air, and having more reactant particles make them more likely to collide so more collisions will happen per second.
Catalyst is a substance that is used in a chemical reaction to speed it up with out being used or changed. It acts like a surface which sticks particles on it and force them to collide.
When the reaction mixture is heated the particles acquire more energy and start moving around faster which will allow more collisions per second, as the particles will be more likely to collide with each other successfully with high energy.
In my investigation I am going to concentrate on the affect of temperature on the rate of reaction between and the sodium thiosulphate solution and the dilute hydrochloric acid, which the reaction is described in the equations below.
+
Last 5 comments…
There have been no comments posted for this article, but you need to register if you want to be the first!