Vernier Software & Technology

# The Rate and Order of a Chemical Reaction

## Introduction

A basic kinetic study of a chemical reaction often involves conducting the reaction at varying concentrations of reactants. In this way, you can determine the order of the reaction in each species, and determine a rate law expression. Once you select a reaction to examine, you must decide how to follow the reaction by measuring some parameter that changes regularly as time passes, such as temperature, pH, pressure, conductance, or absorbance of light.

In this experiment you will conduct the reaction between solutions of potassium iodide and iron (III) chloride. The reaction equation is shown below, in ionic form.

$2{\text{ }}{{\text{I}}^{{\text{ - }}}}{\text{(aq) + 2 F}}{{\text{e}}^{{\text{3 + }}}}{\text{(aq)}} \to {{\text{I}}_{\text{2}}}{\text{ (aq) + 2 F}}{{\text{e}}^{{\text{2 + }}}}{\text{(aq)}}$

As this reaction proceeds, it undergoes a color change that can be precisely measured by a Vernier Colorimeter or a Vernier Spectrometer. By carefully varying the concentrations of the reactants, you will determine the effect each reactant has on the rate of the reaction, and consequently the order of the reaction. From this information, you will write a rate law expression for the reaction.

## Objectives

In this experiment, you will

• Conduct the reaction of KI and FeCl3 using various concentrations of reactants.
• Determine the order of the reaction in KI and FeCl3.
• Determine the rate law expression for the reaction.

## Sensors and Equipment

This experiment features the following Vernier sensors and equipment.

### Option 3

You may also need an interface and software for data collection. What do I need for data collection?

## Advanced Chemistry with Vernier

See other experiments from the lab book.

 1 The Determination of a Chemical Formula 2 The Determination of the Percent Water in a Compound 3 The Molar Mass of a Volatile Liquid 4 Using Freezing-Point Depression to Find Molecular Weight 5 The Molar Volume of a Gas 6 Standardizing a Solution of Sodium Hydroxide 7 Acid-Base Titration 8 An Oxidation-Reduction Titration: The Reaction of Fe2+ and Ce4+ 9 Determining the Mole Ratios in a Chemical Reaction 10 The Determination of an Equilibrium Constant 11 Investigating Indicators 12 The Decomposition of Hydrogen Peroxide 13 Determining the Enthalpy of a Chemical Reaction 14A Separation and Qualitative Analysis of Cations 14B Separation and Qualitative Analysis of Anions 15A The Synthesis of Alum 15B The Analysis of Alum 16 Conductimetric Titration and Gravimetric Determination of a Precipitate 17 Determining the Concentration of a Solution: Beer's Law 18 Liquid Chromatography 19 Buffers 20 Electrochemistry: Voltaic Cells 21 Electroplating 22 The Synthesis and Analysis of Aspirin 23 Determining the Ksp of Calcium Hydroxide 24 Determining Ka by the Half-Titration of a Weak Acid 25 The Rate and Order of a Chemical Reaction 26 The Enthalpy of Neutralization of Phosphoric Acid 27 α, β, and γ 28 Radiation Shielding 29 The Base Hydrolysis of Ethyl Acetate 30 Exploring the Properties of Gases 31 Determining Avogadro's Number 32 Potentiometric Titration of Hydrogen Peroxide 33 Determining the Half-Life of an Isotope 34 Vapor Pressure and Heat of Vaporization 35 Rate Determination and Activation Energy

### Experiment 25 from Advanced Chemistry with Vernier Lab Book

#### Included in the Lab Book

Vernier lab books include word-processing files of the student instructions, essential teacher information, suggested answers, sample data and graphs, and more.