Reaction rates of marble chips

How can we speed up the reaction between Calcium Carbonate and Hydrochloric Acid?

Contents

1. Plan

 Aim

 Equipment

 Variable Factors

 Prediction

 Method

 Trial Run

2. Results

 Results Tables

3. Analysis and Conclusions

 Graphs

 Conclusions

4. Evaluation

 Accuracy Of Results

 Reliability

 Improvements

 Extending the Investigation

1. Plan

Aim

I am doing this experiment to find out how I can speed up the reaction rate between calcium carbonate and hydrochloric acid.

Equipment

This is the equipment I will use:

 Gas Syringe

 Glass Flask

 Calcium Carbonate

 Hydrochloric Acid

Variable Factors

The factors that could slow down or speed up this reaction are:

 The size of the Calcium Carbonate (marble) pieces – This will affect how fast the acid reacts with the marble, the smaller the pieces, the bigger the surface area so the reaction can take place faster.

 The amount of Calcium Carbonate – The more calcium carbonate there is, the more carbon dioxide will be produced and the larger the reaction will be.

 The amount of Hydrochloric Acid – The more hydrochloric acid there is, the more carbon dioxide will be produced and the larger the reaction will be.

 The temperature of the materials – The temperature of the materials determines how fast the reaction will take place. The hotter the materials, the faster the reaction and vice-versa.

 The concentration of Hydrochloric Acid – The higher the concentration (strength) of the acid, the faster it will react.

 The purity of the Calcium Carbonate pieces – The purity of the calcium carbonate will affect the speed of the reaction also.

Prediction

From previous experiments I have learned that if large pieces are broken into smaller pieces they react faster because they have more surface area. This is because at the molecular level, there are more molecules at the surface of the chips for the molecules of acid to react with when the chips are broken into smaller pieces. The same principle can be applied to the marble chips. The smaller the chips the more surface area so I predict that the smaller marble chips will react faster than the larger chips.

Method

Here is the set up:

In this experiment I will be keeping the variables I mentioned earlier the same except one to keep the experiment fair. I will be changing the size of the marble chips to see which size reacts the fastest.

The gas syringe is firstly clamped to the stand and a plastic tube and bung are attached to the syringe.