Rates Of Reaction :: Papers

Rates Of Reaction Aim: To find out the effect of acid concentration in dilute hydrochloric acid and magnesium ribbon, and how much hydrogen gas is given off. Prediction: I predict that as the concentration of the hydrochloric acid increases the time taken for magnesium ribbon to dissolve will decrease. Apparatus: Saturated test tube Rubber bung Bowl water Magnesium ribbon Concentrated hydrochloric acid Plastic tube Stopwatch Conical flask Measuring cylinder The concentration of the acid is going to be my only variable. It will vary the time taken for the magnesium ribbon to dissolve into the acid. Other things that I will be using are not going to be varied these are volume of hydrochloric acid and magnesium ribbon. The magnesium ribbon dissolves into the hydrochloric acid because then it collides with the particles inside the hydrochloric acid. Activation energy is minimum amount of energy required for a reaction to take place. For each of the concentrations I use the activation energy will be different. If the activation energy is high then only a small amount of particles will have enough energy to react but if the activation energy is low then a lot more particles can react. The reaction will also be exothermic because it will be giving off heat and hydrogen gas. A change in concentration is a change in the number of particles in a volume. If we increase the volume the particles will collide more because they are crowded. Factors: The factors that could affect the rate of reaction are as follows: Concentration of Acid This could affect the rate of reaction because the higher that concentration of the acid the more particles there are so there is more collision per second. Temperature: If the starting temperature of the acid is different each time then the speed at which the atoms will collide will increase or decrease depending on what the temperature is.