Chemical kinetics is the study of the speed with which a chemical reaction occurs and the factors that affect this speed. It focused on the reaction rate of an equation or the change in the amount of reactants and products over time. The rate varies from reaction to reaction and is determined from the nature of the reactants. Since the reaction rate is given by the change in the amount of reactants or products over time, the equation is derived as:
Rate = (change in concentration)/(change in time)
If there is a decrease in concentration as the reaction takes place, a negative sign is needed to be included around the rate equation to make sure the value remains positive. The rate of an entire reaction with multiple reactants, …show more content…
The proportionality constant, k, is called the rate constant, and it is specific for a given reaction at a given temperature. The exponent represented, as m and n are the reaction orders depending on what the value of the exponent is and they determine how the rate is affected by the reaction concentration.
There are several different methods for determining the order of a reaction. The process that was used in this experiment is through the emergence of a coloured species over time, with the use of a spectrophotometer to find the transmittance and absorbance of light in the solution that becomes coloured over time.
Transmittance is the ratio of the intensity of light after it passes through the medium being studied to the intensity of light before it passes through the medium.
T=I/I_o
Absorbance is the capacity of a substance to absorb light of a certain wavelength. It can be found through the following equation:
A=-logT=-log(I/I_o )
In this experiment, we used the absorbance of light by the solution as the reaction takes place as the value for the concentration of Cr (III) ion. It was given that absorbance and concentration are directly proportional through the Beer-Lambert