Rate of Reaction Experimental Calculations
- During a reaction, the reactants are used up and changed into the products
- This means that as the reaction proceeds, the concentration of reactants decreases and the concentration of products increases
- Therefore, the rate of the reaction is not the same throughout the reaction but changes
- The rate of reaction during the reaction can be calculated from a concentration-time graph.
- The isomerisation of cyclopropane to propene will be taken as an example:
Isomerisation of cyclopropane
The reactant cyclopropane isomerises to form propene
- The concentrations of reactant (cyclopropane) and product (propene) over time can be experimentally obtained
Concentrations of cyclopropane & propene results table
Time (min) |
[cyclopropane] (mol dm-3) |
[propene] (mol dm-3) |
0 | 1.50 | 0.00 |
5 | 1.23 | 0.27 |
10 | 1.00 | 0.50 |
15 | 0.82 | 0.68 |
20 | 0.67 | 0.83 |
25 | 0.55 | 0.95 |
30 | 0.45 | 1.05 |
35 | 0.37 | 1.13 |
40 | 0.33 | 1.17 |
- When taking the measurements, the temperature should be kept the same at all times as a change in temperature will change the rate of reaction
- A concentration-time graph for the concentration of propene as well as cyclopropane can be obtained from the above results
- As an example, the concentration-time graph for propene is shown below:
Concentration-time graph for propene
The graph shows that the concentration of propene increases with time
Calculating the rate at the start of a reaction
- At the start of the reaction, the concentration-time curve looks almost linear
- The rate at this point can therefore be found by treating the curve as a linear line and by using:
Rate of reaction =
- Using the graph, the average rate of the reaction over the first 5 minutes for propene is:
Applying tangents to curves
Line (a) shows the average rate over the first five minutes whereas line (b) shows the actual initial rate found by drawing a tangent at the start of the curve. The calculated rates are very similar for both methods.
- Rate of reaction =
- Rate of reaction =
- Rate of reaction = 0.0009 mol dm-3 s-1
Calculating the rate as the reaction proceeds
- The curve becomes shallower with time which means that the rate decreases with time
- The rate of reaction can be calculated by taking short time intervals
- For example, the rate of reaction from 15 to 20 mins
- During this time, the concentration of propene increases from 0.68 to 0.83 mol dm-3:
- Rate of reaction =
- Rate of reaction =
- Rate of reaction =
- Rate of reaction = 0.0005 mol dm-3 s-1
- The smaller the time intervals, the more accurate the reaction rate value is
- Even more accurate is to find the rate of reaction at different concentrations of reactant or product at particular time points
- This can be done by drawing tangents at several points on the graph
- As an example, the rates of reaction at different concentrations of cyclopropane are calculated by drawing the appropriate tangents:
Calculating rate as a reaction progresses
The rate of reaction at 3 different concentrations of cyclopropane is calculated by drawing tangents at those points in the graph
Rate-concentration graph
- The calculated rates can then be summarised in a table to show how the rate of reaction changes with changing concentration of the reactants or products
Change in rate with decreasing concentration of cyclopropane table
[cyclopropane] (mol dm-3) |
Rate (10–3 mol dm-3 s-1) |
0.5 | 0.33 |
1.0 | 0.67 |
1.5 | 1.0 |
- This data can then be used to plot a rate-concentration graph
- The graph shows that the rate is directly proportional to the concentration of cyclopropane
- If you double the concentration of cyclopropane the rate of reaction will double too
Rate-concentration graph
The graph shows a directly proportional correlation between the concentration of cyclopropane and the rate of reaction
Examiner Tip
To calculate the rate of reaction you can either use the increase in concentration of products (like in the example above) or the decrease in concentration of reactants.