Chemistry Internal

Assessment
IB June 2010
Saksham Malhotra
 Design an experiment to investigate factors
affecting the rate of chemical reaction.
Research Question
How is the rate of reaction affected when catalyst is
used?
Introduction
For any reaction to take place, activation energy is required. So, for
some reactions, the activation energy is quiet high and they require
a catalyst. In simple terms, a catalyst increases the rate of reaction
but does not take part in the reaction itself. It basically lowers the
activation energy of any reaction. A catalyst works by either
changing the structure of the molecules or by bonding to the
reactant molecule. This will lead them to react or release energy.
Without a catalyst, the reaction may not even take place or if it does
react, it would take a lot of time.
The reaction that was used in this experiment is the oxidation of
potassium sodium tartrate by hydrogen peroxide using cobalt
chloride as a catalyst. The tartrate ion reacts with hydrogen
peroxide to release carbon dioxide, water and Methanoate ion.

C4H4O62- (aq) + 3H2O2(aq) 2CO2(g) + 2HCO2-(aq)+ 4H2O(l)

But this reaction without a catalyst takes a lot of time to fully react,
so for this experiment we will use cobalt salt solution (in this case,
Cobalt (II) Chloride) as a catalyst and note the time taken for the
reaction.
The main motive behind doing this experiment is to prove that
addition of a catalyst improves the rate of reaction. Therefore this
experiment had two parts. First part was where no catalyst was
used and the second part was where catalyst was present in the
reaction.
This reaction is also known as the traffic light experiment as the
colour changes during this reaction represent the sequence of lights
as seen in a traffic light. Cobalt (II) ions are pink in colour. The
hydrogen peroxide initially oxidides the cobalt (II) to cobalt (III). This
Co3+ is green in colour and because of this the colour changed to
green. Then the cobalt (III) ions react with the tartrate ions and
reduction takes place where the cobalt (III) changes back to cobalt
(II), which is pink in colour. Hence, the reaction goes through a
number of colour changes before it finally returns to pink. The
catalyst here provides an alternative route of the reaction to take
place. This route has lower activation energy and the reaction
proceeds much more quickly.

Hypothesis
Rate of reaction is affected by a number of things. Some of these
improve the rate at which the reaction takes place while some
decrease the rate of reaction. For this experiment we can
hypothesize that addition of a catalyst will improve the rate of
reaction by a significant amount. The difference in the rate of
reaction with and without the catalyst might be huge.

Variables
Type of Variables Method of measuring
variables

Independent Variable A fixed amount (5cm3) of

Cobalt (II) Chloride was used
Presence of Catalyst for all trials during this
experiment.
 Dependent Variable
Rate of Reaction (Amount of
CO2 produced per unit of
time)
Controlled Variable
Size of Apparatus
Temperature
Amount of reactants
The amount of gas liberated
was measured using a burette
(Downward displacement of
water)
The same apparatus was
used for all trials of this
experiment and the
temperature was maintained
at 80oc. The amount of
reactants used was also same
throughout the experiment.

The table shows the variables involved in this experiment

During the experiment, volume of the gas (CO2) was recorded along
with the time taken to produce it. The amount of gas liberated
during a specific time period will determine the rate of reaction for
this experiment.

Apparatus Used Uncertainty

Measuring Cylinder 50 cm3 ± 0.5 cm3

Measuring Cylinder 10 cm3 ±0.2 cm3

Beaker 250 cm3 ±0.2 cm3

Bunsen Burner -

Tripod Stand -
 Gauze -

Thermometer ±0.01°C

Conical Flask -

Burette 50 cm3 ±0.1 cm3

Rubber Cork and Tubes -

Stop watch ± 0.01 sec

Chemicals Used:
• Hydrogen Peroxide (20mol/dm3)
• Potassium Sodium Tartrate (Rochelle Salt)
• Cobalt (II) Chloride Solution (4%)
• Distilled Water

Procedure

1) The apparatus was set up as shown in the figure below

2) The first trial of this experiment was done without any
use of catalyst.
3) 4 grams of potassium sodium tartrate was added to 50
cm3 of distilled water and mixed.
4) The mixture was placed on a tripod and gauze and
heated till 80oc.
5) Then 20 cm3 of 20 volume hydrogen peroxide was
added to the tartrate solution.
6) Temperature was noted and the mixture was heated
again to 80oc.
7) The mixture was allowed to react and time was
recorded but there was no sigh of any gas being liberated.
No colour change was observed and the level of water in the
burette didn’t change.
8) The steps from 3 to 7 were repeated again for two
more trials. Then the experiment was performed again using
the catalyst.
 9) The amount of potassium sodium tartrate and
hydrogen peroxide was same as used in the previous three
trials.
10)The mixture of potassium sodium tartrate and hydrogen
o
peroxide was heated to 80 c.
11)5cm3 of cobalt chloride solution (red in colour) was added to
this mixture and changes in colour and water level was
recorded.
12)With the addition of the catalyst, the mixture turned red
immediately and within a few seconds, the colour changed to
yellow then green and then back to red.
13)During the colour changes, gas was released and measured
using an inverted burette and the time taken for the gas to
release was also recorded.
14)The method used to measure and collect the gas was
downward displacement of water.
15)Steps 10 to 13 were repeated again for two more trials
keeping the amount of reactants same for all trials.

Data Recording
Raw Data Collected
The table below shows the change in the burette reading for the
reaction where no catalyst was used.
Burette Readings/cm3 (±0.1 cm3)
Time/sec Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3
10 50 50 50
20 50 50 50
30 50 50 50
40 50 50 50
50 50 50 50
60 50 50 50
From the table above we notice that the reaction did not take place
for the first 60 seconds as no gas was produced and no colour
change was observed. The three sets of experiments were kept
aside for 2 hours and yet no signs of reaction were seen. Hence
the reaction did not take place during the first 2 hours.

The table below shows the change in burette reading for the
reaction where catalyst was used.
Burette Reading/cm3 (±0.1 cm3)
Time/sec Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3
10 50.0 50.0 50.0
20 44.0 46.0 44.0
30 37.0 32.0 33.0
40 19.0 21.0 21.0
50 9.0 10.0 12.0
60 5.0 8.0 5.0

Uncertainty Table
Volume of gas Time
Instrument Instrument Observer’s
Uncertainty Uncertainty
Uncertainty
±0.1 cm3 ± 0.01 seconds ±0.12 seconds

For Volume of Gas, formula used:

Initial reading of water – final reading of water
So the uncertainty for the volume of gas produced will be:
2*(± 0.1) = ± 0.2 cm3
Therefore the total uncertainty for Burette is ±0.2 cm3 and for the
stopwatch, it is ±0.13 seconds.

Processed Data
The table shows the final set of processed data that was recorded
for the experiment in which the catalyst was used. To calculate the
values in the following table, the formula below was used:

Time/sec Volume of Gas Produced Average

(±0.13 sec) Volume
(±0.2)
(±0.2)
Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3
10 0.0 0.0 0.0 0
20 6.0 4.0 6.0 5.3
30 13.0 18.0 17.0 16.0
40 31.0 29.0 29.0 29.6
50 41.0 40.0 38.0 39.6
60 45.0 42.0 45.0 44.0

Graph of Time Vs. Volume of Gas produced

The chart uncertainty is quiet low so the error bars are very small.

Conclusion
The experiment depicts clearly that the reaction that could not take
place in two hours, just the addition of a catalyst could make the
mixture react in about a minute. Clearly giving a solid proof that the
addition of a catalyst improves the rate of reaction by a generous
amount. So what we saw during this experiment was that when the
potassium sodium tartrate was mixed with hydrogen peroxide, the
 mixture does not react because the activation energy required was
not attained. When the catalyst was added, brisk effervescences
took place with the liberation of carbon dioxide gas and multiple
colour changes took place. The reaction rate was very fast and
clearly proved the hypothesis.
With the addition of the catalyst (Cobalt ll Chloride), the activation
energy i.e. the energy that must be overcome in order to the
reaction to take place, is lowered. That means the rate of reaction
increases. Also this reaction proves that the catalyst does not react
with the reactants as when the reaction is complete, red colour of
Cobalt (ll) Chloride is seen and after the reaction, the catalyst is
back to its original form. The properties of a catalyst also tell that
the catalyst can be used again for multiple reactions.

Evaluation
During the reaction, the measurements were taken with good care
and precision but the presence of random errors made the results
a bit inaccurate.
The following reasons may have caused the results to vary:
• The atmosphere temperature cannot be constant during the
reaction and the same goes for atmospheric pressure. The
variation in these two factors may have caused the results to
differ.
• When raising the temperature of potassium sodium tartrate, 50
cm3 of distilled water was used before heating it. During the
heating process, there was no lid or cover to prevent the water
vapours to escape. This may have caused the amount of
reactants to vary.
• When the reactants were mixed and catalyst was added, the
rubber cork was placed. During the time when the reactants were
mixed and cork was placed, some gas must have escaped as
the reaction was fairly spontaneous.
• The rubber tube carrying the gas was not examined properly
before the reaction. Presence of residue or any blockage could
have been a hindrance for the passing CO2 gas.
• The Hydrogen peroxide used for this experiment was pre made
and bottled up. With time the concentration decreases and the
concentration written on the label was 20 M but the actual
concentration might not be exactly 20 M.
The presence of errors can thus be justified, as there were
limitations during this experiment.