Chemsitry Coursework

Chemistry Coursework

An investigation: Reacting magnesium with hydrochloric acid

Introduction

Experiment equation =

Magnesium + Hydrochloric acid Magnesium Chloride + Hydrogen

Mg + 2HCl MgCl2 + H2

The aim of the experiment is to investigate how the concentration of hydrochloric acid affects the rate of reaction with magnesium, i.e. how quickly/how much hydrogen is produced.

The factors that may affect the rate of reaction are as follows:

• Temperature of the Hydrochloric Acid

• Catalyst

The effect of temperature

is taking place, the particles move more quickly. This has two effects:

1) More collisions take place

lead to a reaction, because the activation energy is higher so the reactions will be more successful.

The effect of concentration

The concentration of a solution is how strong the solution is. In this leads to a greater frequency of collisions so the rate of the increases.

The Effect of surface area

increases the number of collisions. The energy of the particles remains the same.

Catalyst

To increase the rate of a reaction you need to increase the number of successful an alternative which has a lower activation energy. On a graph it would look like this

Chosen Factor- I have chosen to use concentration as my variable.

Prediction

I in the same volume. With a more concentrated acid, the number of acid particles is of colliding successfully.

Key-

Magnesium particles-

Hydrochloric acid particles-

The higher the, which means there will be more successful collisions per second, so the rate of reaction in the reactivity series than hydrogen. When the two chemicals react a displacement reaction will take place and the magnesium will displace the hydrogen in the hydrochloric acid forming magnesium chloride.

Ways that I could record my experiment

(1) I could use a gas syringe to collect the gas that will be the product of my experiment. Increasing the concentration of acid molecules increases the frequency or chance at which they hit the surface. I could use these results to calculate the rate of reaction. I would do this by measuring how much space the syringe plunger moves. This would be measured in cm cubed.

(2) I could use a displacement reaction and use the product (hydrogen) to displace the water. I would then measure how much in cm cubed the water had been disp

Fair Test

I must make sure that this experiment is fair because I want to get all of my results as accurate as possible. The main points of fairness are:

• Keep the chemicals temperatures at the same temperature before starting.

• Use the same volume of sulphuric acid.

• Use the same length pieces of magnesium ribbon.

.

The following factors that I will change are-

• The concentration

• The volume of acid

• The volume on water

Chemicals

I will be using- ~hydrochloric acid

~ Water

~ 2cm magnesium ribbon

Apparatus

• 2 Measuring cylinder (100ml & 50ml).

• Conical flask (250ml)

• Safety goggles

• Plastic container (500ml)