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. 

In my experiment I will change the temperature of the hydrochloric acid. I will not change anything
else; I will keep the amount of calcium carbonate, the form of calcium carbonate, the concentration
of hydrochloric acid, the surface area of the calcium carbonate and the amount of hydrochloric acid all
the same. I will not add a catalyst to my solution and I will not stir my solution. 

· I will use 25cm3 of hydrochloric acid. 

· I will use 1g of calcium carbonate. 

· I will use 0.5 molar concentration of hydrochloric acid. 

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· I will use small chips of calcium carbonate. 

By keeping everything the same apart from the temperature I am creating a fair test. I will also wash
out the beaker in which I will perform the experiment after each use. I will also repeat my experiment
twice to confirm that the results are correct and that there are no anomalous results. 

I could get results for this experiment by recording a number of things, I could record: 

· The amount of time it takes for the calcium carbonate to dissolve. 

· The amount of gas produced by the reaction in a certain amount of 

time. 

I am going to record the amount of gas produced by the reaction in two 

minutes. 

Prediction: 

I predict that when I increase the temperature of the hydrochloric acid the reaction will take place
quicker so more gas will be produced in a shorter amount of time. I think this will happen because at
a higher temperature the ions have more kinetic energy so they move through the solution faster so the
ions will collide more often and more vigorously meaning there is a greater chance they will react
as reactions happen when ions collide.

Rate of Reaction - Sodium Thiosulphate and Hydrochloric Acid 

Aim

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Investigation, to find out how the rate of reaction between Sodium Thiosulphate and Hydrochloric
acid is affected by changing the concentration.

Introduction

I must produce a piece of coursework investigating the rate of reaction, and the effect different
changes have on them. The rate of reaction is the rate of loss of a reactant or the rate of development
of a product during a chemical reaction. It is measured by dividing 1by the time taken for the reaction
to take place. There is five factors which affect the rate of a reaction, according to the collision theory
of reacting particles: temperature, concentration (of solution), pressure (in gases), surface area (of
solid reactants), and catalysts. I have chosen to investigate the effect of concentration on the rate
reaction. This is because it is the most practical to investigate. Dealing with temperatures is a difficult
task especially when we have to keep constant high temperatures. Secondly the rate equation and the
constant k changes when the temperature of the reaction changes. We have no gases and solids
involved therefore it is easy to deal with solutions. Similarly the use of a catalyst complicates things,
and if used incorrectly could alter the outcome of the experiment.

The theory behind this experiment is that 'Increasing the concentration can increase the rate of the
reaction by increasing the rate of molecular collisions.'

I will place the reaction mixture on a paper with a black cross-drawn on it. When the cross is
completely obscured, the reaction will have finished. The time taken for this to happen is the measure
of the rate of reaction. We must do this several times, and change the
concentration of Sodium Thiosulphate.

The rate of reaction is a measure of the change, which happens durin a reaction in a single unit of
time. The things that affect the rate of reaction are as follows:

· Surface area of the reactants

· Concentration of the reactants
· The temperature at which the reaction is carried out
· Use of a catalyst

Reaction equation is mentioned above but rate equation could only be decided by doing experiments.
So the following procedure can be used to carry out the experiment.

Plan

Equipment

· 2 Measuring cylinders
· Beaker
· Stopwatch
· Paper with black cross on it
· Sodium Thiosulphate (different concentrations)
· Hydrochloric acid (same concentration each time)
· Water (different concentrations)
· Pipette

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Prediction

I predict that the greater the concentration of Sodium Thiosulphate solution the faster the chemical
reaction will take place. Therefore, the cross will disappear more quickly due to the cloudiness of the
solution. I predict that as concentration is doubled the amount of time taken for the reaction is halved.
This means that both graphs drawn up in my analysis will have positive correlation, and will probably
be curved as the increase in rate of reaction will not be exactly the same as the concentration is
increased. This can be justified by relating to the collision theory.

If solutions of reacting particles are made more concentrated there are more particles per unit volume.
Collisions between reacting particles are therefore more likely to occur. All this can be understood
better with full understanding of the collision theory itself: For a reaction to occur particles have to
collide with each other. Only a small percent result in a reaction. This is due to the energy barrier to
overcome. Only particles with enough energy to overcome the barrier will react after colliding. The
minimum energy that a particle must have to overcome the barrier is called the activation energy, or
Ea. The size of this activation energy is different for different reactions.

I think that the concentration of a solution effects the rate of reaction because 'the rate of reaction
depends on how frequently the molecules of the reacting substances collide. A more concentrated
substance has more molecules for a given volume than a more dilute substance. Because there are
more molecules about, the frequency of successful collisions is greater, and the reactions happen
faster.'

Safety

There are a lot of safety issues we must abide by in this experiment also. We must remember that the
substances which we use in this experiment can be very harmful if used the wrong way.

When we do this experiment, it may be necessary to wear safety goggles, as things are very
unpredictable, and even though it is very unlikely that the solution would come out of the beaker
during the experiment, one must still be cautious of spills.

We must make sure that coats and bags are all out of the way while doing the experiment. Ties and
hair should be tucked out of the way,
so they do not make contact with any of the chemicals. It would also be preferable to wear a scientific
apron, however this is not essential.

We should also try our best not to spill any chemicals, and we must not eat or drink in the lab while
dealing with these harmful chemicals, as they can get on to our hands.

Fair Test

To make this experiment a fair test, we need to make sure we do anumber of things. In this
experiment we are trying to find the rate of reaction using concentration as a factor, so there is a
number of things we need to make sure we do to keep it a fair test.

Firstly, we need to keep a chemical at a constant concentration. So, in this experiment we have chosen

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to keep hydrochloric acid at a constant concentration (5cm3). We could have, however, used Sodium
Thiosulphate as a constant, but we had chosen to use Hydrochloric
acid.

Next we must make sure that the solution is kept at a constant volume throughout the experiment. If
the volume is different, then it could give different results to if it was at a constant volume. We must
also make sure that we add both the water and the Sodium Thiosulphate at exactly the same time (into
the beaker with the hydrochloric acid in it), or it could affect the results of the experiment.

We must start the stopwatch at the exact time as we put the water and the Sodium Thiosulphate into
the beaker. To do this it is a lot easier if there are two people doing the experiment, so one person can
put the two substances in the HCL, and one person can start the stopwatch. Also The person timing
the experiment will look for the disappearance of the cross, otherwise there would be a time lapse
between seeing the cross disappear and telling the other person to stop the clock and then eventually
stopping the clock.

It is also important to keep the temperature the same to obtain fair results, however we do not have to
worry about this as the temperature will be kept at room temperature through out the experiment. It is
also important we keep the colour and size of the cross the same this will help keep the results fair for
the experiment

Another thing we must do is to make sure that the beaker is completely clean and free of any water or
any other substance before we attempt to start the next experiment.

Method

Firstly, we drew a black cross on a white piece of paper. Then, we put 5 cm3 of hydrochloric acid in a
beaker, and then put the beaker on the black cross on the paper. We then added 50 cm3 of Sodium
Thiosulphate to the hydrochloric acid, and at this time we do not need to add any water. .
Immediately, we started the stopwatch. We then waited for the black cross to be completely obscured
by the mixture. When this happened we stopped the stopwatch. By this time the mixture was
completely cloudy. Then we recorded what the time was.
We then emptied out the contents of the beaker, cleaned it out and dried it out. Next, we added 45
cm3 of Sodium Thiosulphate; we kept the HCL acid constantly at 5 cm3. Now, because we have to
keep the volume the same for it to be a fair test, we added 5 cm3 of water. (We had to add the Sodium
Thiosulphate and the water at the same time for this to be a fair test also). We then recorded the time
for the cross to become completely obscured.

We repeated this many times, adding different amounts of Sodium Thiosulphate and water each time,
and recording the time taken each time.

My results show that as concentration decreases, time taken for the solution to go cloudy increases.
This can be explained using the collision theory. The rate of reaction is the speed at which a chemical
reaction takes place. It is usually expressed in terms of the concentration (e.g.- moles per litre) of a
reactant consumed, or product formed in unit time. Therefore the units would be moles per litre per
second (mol 1-1 s-1). It may be affected by the concentration of reactants, the temperature of
reactants, and the presence of a catalyst.

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Increasing the concentration means there are more collisions and more successful collisions.
Consequently the rate of collision increases. The time it takes for a change to take place can be
measured; the rate of reaction can be approximated by taking the reciprocal of this time (1/time). For
a reaction to take place two reactants must collide and the collision must have sufficient energy.

In the higher concentration there are more particles, so there is a higher chance of a reaction with the
necessary amount of energy occurring.

Method

1. Set up the apparatus as shown in the diagram. 

2. Measure 50 cm3 of the 1M sodium thiosulphate solution using a 50 cm3 measuring
cylinder. 
3. Place the sodium thiosulphate solution into a conical flask. 
4. Measure 10cm3 of 1M dilute hydrochloric acid using a 10cm3 measuring cylinder and place
it into the conical flask and start the timer. 
5. Time until the cloudy mixture makes the cross disappear. 
6. Repeat the experiment with other acid concentrations as shown in exp 2 and 3 etc.
7. Repeat experiments for each concentration.