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The Rate of a Chemical Reaction

What is rate?
Rate is a measure of how fast or slow something is. In chemistry, we speak of a rate of reaction,
this tells us how fast or slow a reaction is.
Why do chemists want to know the rate of a reaction?
If you are making a product, it is important to know how long the reaction takes to complete, before
the product is produced.
Rate is a measure of a change that happens over a single unit time. That unit time is most
often a second, a minute, or an hour.

Rate of Reaction Between Calcium Carbonate and Hydrochloric Acid

Plan:
In my experiment I will measure the rate of reaction between calcium
carbonate and hydrochloric acid. The rate of the reaction is the speed
that the reaction takes place so by measuring the rate I will measure
the amount of time the reaction takes. Hydrochloric acid is a strong
acid that is found in digestive juices in the stomach, it is also used
for cleaning metals before they are coated. Calcium carbonate has a
few forms including chalk and limestone the main use of these two
materials is in the making of concrete, which is used for many things
such as buildings.
When you put calcium carbonate and hydrochloric acid together they
react to form calcium chloride, carbon dioxide and water.
Hydrochloric acid + calcium carbonate arrow calcium chloride + carbon
dioxide + water.
HCl(aq) + CaCO3(s) arrow CaCl2(aq) + CO2(g) + H2O(l)
Things that affect the reaction rate of this experiment are:
1. The temperature of the hydrochloric acid.

2. The amount of hydrochloric acid.

3. The concentration of the hydrochloric acid.
4. The surface area of the calcium carbonate.
5. The amount of calcium carbonate.
6. The form of calcium carbonate. (It is available in three forms
powder, small stones or large stones)
7. You can speed up the reaction by stirring the solution.
8. You can also change the rate of the reaction by adding a catalyst,
which is something that speeds up the reaction.
Reaction between zinc and dilute hydrochloric acid
What we observe over time is that gradually the zinc disappears and bubbles of gas appear. After a
few minutes the bubbles of gas form less and less quickly until finally no bubbles appear because all
the acid has been used up, some zinc remains.

To summarise, during this reaction zinc chloride and hydrogen gas are been formed at the
same time as zinc and hydrochloric acid react.

How to measure rate

Using the reaction between zinc and hydrochloric acid as an example, the following are methods by
which you could measure the rate of that reaction.
1. Measure that amount of zinc used up per minute
2. Measure the amount of hydrochloric acid used up per minute
3. Measure the amount of zinc chloride been formed per minute
4. Measure the amount of hydrogen been produced per minute
When choosing which method to measure rate always choose the most straightforward.
In the example above, by far the easiest would be to collect the bubbles of hydrogen and measure its
volume.

Methods Used for Measuring Rate

Measuring volume of gas evolved:

To measure the hydrogen gas released in the above reaction we use the apparatus as shown. As the
bubbles of gas are given off, the plunger in the syringe moves out as hydrogen gas fills it. After,
say every 20 seconds we read the volume of gas in the syringe. The reaction is complete when the
syringe no longer moves.
To find the actual rate we plot a graph of volume of hydrogen (cm 3) against time (seconds).
Note:
1. The rate is not a constant throughout the reaction - it changes!
2. The reaction is fastest at the start, gradually becoming slower as the reaction proceeds.
3. From the graph, the fastest part of the reaction is shown by the steepest curve.
4. The curve on the graph goes flat when the reaction is complete. This is because, as time goes on
the volume of the gas evolved does not change.
Measuring the Rate of Loss of a Gaseous Product:
In the reaction between calcium carbonate (marble chips) and hydrochloric acid we can use the
apparatus below to find the rate of reaction.

Marble chips and acid are placed in the flask but separated by a piece of card - preventing the reaction
from proceeding. This apparatus is placed on a balance and the mass of the flask and its contents is
read.
To start the reaction, the flask is gently lent to one side, causing the card to fall and the marble chips
and acid to mix.
A piece of cotton wool is placed in the neck of the flask to allow carbon dioxide gas to escape. As the
gas escapes the mass of the flask reduces. Take readings of mass loss over a time interval, e.g. 30
seconds.
To find the actual rate we plot the loss in mass (grams) against time (seconds)

As with the previous experiment, the steepest part of the curve is at the start, hence the fastest part of
the reaction is at the start.
Gradually the curve becomes less and less steep as the reaction slows down. Eventually a flat curve
appears indicating the end of the reaction.