rate of reaction coursework Essay

Submitted By afeera_
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The topic we are investigating is the rate of reaction. A rate of reaction simply means how fast or slow a reaction takes place. For a reaction to take place the molecules need a sufficient about of energy for collisions to happen.
There are ways in which affect the time of the reaction, such as surface area, Temperature, concentration and the use of a catalyst.
Firstly surface area, this can affect the time of a reaction to take place due to how much exposed are it has. Temperature is another thing, this is because if you make the temperature higher, by heating it the molecules separate and move around faster. By increasing the speed of the molecules more collisions are taken place and therefore the reaction occurs quicker. Concentration of the solution also affects it due to vast amount of collisions that would take place because there would be more of the reactants and therefore more chance of them to collide. Catalyst is any substance that works to accelerate a chemical reaction. So therefore adding in a catalyst to the reaction would make it more reactant, due to the fact that it replaces the amount of energy needed for the collisions.
The two chemicals we are using in our investigation are sodium thiosulfate and Hydrochloric Acid. With this reaction sodium chloride, sulphur dioxide, sulphur and water are formed. The sulphur in this reaction makes the solution go cloudy. Our investigation would be based on the rate of formation of sulphur. The chemical equation for this reaction is:
Na2S22O3 + HCl  2NaCl + H2O + SO2 + S
The experiments I could have done were
- Measuring volume of gas produces
- Measuring precipitation
- Measure the mass lost

The experiment I chose was to measure the precipitation with the factor of concentration. To do this I would place a white piece of paper underneath the beaker that has been marked with a cross that could be easily seen through the clear liquid. As the sulphur forms in the reaction the solution will become more and cloudier and the cross gets harder to see. The way I will measure this is by starting the timer as soon as........................ is added and measure the time it takes till the cross is no longer seen.
Before doing the actual experiment, we did trial runs to test and tackle the problems we come across, so we don’t