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Worked Example

Experiments are carried out to investigate the kinetics (rate of reaction) of three compounds A, B and C that react together.The results are shown in the table.Comparing experiment 1 to experiment 2, [A] and [C] are constant. However, [B] doubles (×2) and the rate quadruples (×22), so the rate is second order with respect to B.Comparing experiments 2 with 3, [B] and [C] are constant but [A] has decreased by ×0.5 whilst the rate has decreased by ×0.5 . Therefore, the reaction is 1st order with respect to A.Comparing experiment 1 with 4, [B] is constant. Since A is first order and [A] has increased by ×3 as we would expect the rate increases by ×3. The ×0.5 decrease of [C] does not appear to have made a difference to the rate so the reaction is zero order with respect to C.The rate equation is given by:
rate = k [A] [B] 2
From experiment 1 k = 24.0 dm6mol-2s-1

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Specification: OCR Chemistry A (H432), A-level, 5.1.1 How fast?. Topic: Rate of Reaction.

Key terms in this lesson

rate equation
An equation that shows how the rate of a reaction depends on the concentration of each reactant, each raised to a power called its order.
order of reaction
The power to which the concentration of a reactant is raised in the rate equation.

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