Kinetics And The Interaction Rates Of Chemical Reaction

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Introduction

Kinetics is the discovery and study of the reaction rates of chemical reactions. These reaction rates involve the pace or rate at which a reaction progresses. Many specific conditions can affect the reaction rate value; furthermore, the factors include the concentration of the reactants, the polarity of the solvent, and temperature1. The rate of reaction can be determined and studied using a rate law, an equation that correlates the rate with concentrations and a rate constant. This experiment’s reaction involving t-butyl chloride has a first order reaction rate, which means that the reaction’s rate law equation is the first order equation shown below. r = k [A] …show more content…

Although the initial molarities were given on the chemical’s bottle, adjustments need to be made due to dilutions. In the general experiment and the heated and cooled solutions sections, the concentration of t-butyl chloride is 0.1 M molar because it was not diluted. The molarity of sodium hydroxide for these sections is calculated below.

M1 V1 = M2 V2 Eq. 4

Calculation 3: Molarity of sodium hydroxide after dilution

(0.1 M) (0.0003 L) = M2 (0.007 L)

(0.1 M) (0.0003 L) = M2 (0.007 L)

M2 = 0.0043 M

In the lowered concentration section, both t-butyl chloride and sodium hydroxide were diluted, so these calculation also use equation 4.

Calculation 4: Molarity of t-butyl chloride after dilution

(0.1 M) (0.003 L) = M2 (0.006 …show more content…

Since the k values will not change with concentration as long as temperature and the solvent remain constant, k should change as temperature changes1. This is seen in this experiment because the resulting k values of the heated and cooled sections were different from the general reaction. This SN1 reaction is only effected by the change in concentration of the substrate, t-butyl chloride, and not the nucleophile. Some parts of this experiment are extremely vulnerable to error. For example, when initially preparing the initial solutions for the 25 mL and 50 mL Erlenmeyer flasks, it would be very simple to unknowingly add too much of a chemical. Also, the t-butyl chloride could evaporate before the solutions are mixed, which would yield less moles about to react. Errors involving calculations and the timing of the reactions can also be flawed due to human

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