Christopher Ong 11BIOL4

Biology Practical Activity: Surface Area and Rate of Reaction

Syllabus Outcomes: 8.3.3.3.2
Perform a first-hand investigation to demonstrate the relationship between surface area and rate of reaction

Aim: To investigate how surface area affects the rate of reaction. Risk Assessment: Identify Acid splash into eye Rating Low Minimisation Wear Safety Glasses. Use low strength acid. If contact occurs, wash eyes for several minutes Do not cool immediately after heating. Hold the beaker securely. Keep the beaker away from the edge of the bench. Wear gloves. Use low strength acid. If contact occurs, wash fingers immediately.

Cut from broken beaker glass

Low

Acid splash onto fingers

Low

Equipment: - 3 antacid tablets - 1 measuring cylinder - 3 50mL beakers - 1 150mL beaker filled with 60mL HCl (Hydrochloric Acid) - 1 stopwatch - Mortar and Pestle - Safety Glasses Procedure: 1. Wear safety glasses before performing the experiment. 2. Collect the above materials and bring them to your bench. 3. Measure exactly 20mLs of HCl using a measuring cylinder. 4. Pour the HCl into a 50mL beaker. 5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for two more beakers. 6. Unwrap all the antacid tablets from their packaging. 7. Crush one tablet into a fine powder using the mortar and pestle. 8. Break another tablet into half, leaving the remaining tablet whole. 9. At the same time, drop the whole tablet, half-broken tablet and the crushed tablet into separate beakers with 20mLs of HCl. It should look similar to Figure 1. 10.

Figure 1 Tablets dissolving in acid

Christopher Ong 11BIOL4 11. Start the stopwatch as soon as the tablet drops into the acid. 12. Lap the stopwatch every time the tablet dissolves, stopping the timer when the third tablet has finished fizzing. 13. Record and tabulate the times at which the tablets have completely dissolved. 14. Return the equipment and clean the bench space. Results: Type of Tablet 1. Whole 2. Half-broken 3. Crushed Minutes 2.75 2.52 2.00 Time taken to dissolve Seconds 165 151 120

1 Discussion:

1. It is necessary to avoid contact between hydrochloric acid and the skin/eyes because it is corrosive, and can cause burns on contact. If it comes in contact with the eyes, it can result in blindness, depending on the strength of the acid. To prevent contact of hydrochloric acid with the eyes, safety glasses can be worn to protect from splashes. To prevent contact with the skin, gloves can be worn, or a dropper can be used to handle the liquid. To reduce the danger of the acid, a weaker or more diluted acid can be used. 2. The independent variable in this experiment is how crushed the tablet is. The dependent variable in this experiment is the time it takes to dissolve. 3. The controlled variables in the experiment are the amount of hydrochloric acid, the size of the tablet and the size of the beaker. 4. The rate of reaction can also be called the speed of reaction. The rate is how fast or slow the reaction takes place. It is a quantity measured with respect to another measured quantity. In the practical, the speed of which the tablet dissolved was compared to how crushed the tablet was. 5. From our results, we can determine that the greater the surface area, the faster the reaction time. Similarly, the lower the surface area, the slower the reaction time. The crushed tablet, which has greater surface area, dissolved 45 seconds faster than the whole tablet, which took 165 seconds to dissolve. The half-broken tablet, took 31 seconds longer than the crushed tablet, but dissolved faster than the whole tablet by 14 seconds.

Christopher Ong 11BIOL4 6. From the information given, we can see that when an antacid tablet comes in contact with an acid, it produces carbon dioxide, water and a salt. When the antacid tablet is digested in the stomach, it reacts with the acid in the stomach, producing large amounts of carbon dioxide. This excess carbon dioxide is belched out, soon after taking the antacid tablet. The antacid tablet provides digestive relief, as it helps to neutralise the acidity of the stomach. It is especially effective in reducing heartburn, as the acid has been neutralised. Improvements 1. The experiment can be made more reliable if a larger beaker with more hydrochloric acid is used. The problem encountered was that the bubbles produced by the reaction prevented some of the powdered tablet from dissolving. It was only when the bubbles popped that the powdered tablet came in contact with the acid, and this may have affected reaction times. 2. The accuracy of the experiment can be improved, if calibrated equipment is used to measure the amount of hydrochloric acid being used in the experiment. It is likely that each beaker had a slightly different amount of hydrochloric acid in them, due to human or parallax error. By weighing the contents of the beaker with acid, exactly the same amount of acid can be used for each beaker.

Conclusion: Through the experiment performed, we successfully investigated how surface area affects rate of reaction. The crushed tablet dissolved the fastest, followed by the half-broken tablet, and lastly the whole tablet, when dropped in acid. From these results, it was found that a greater surface area resulted in a faster rate of reaction. Similarly, a lower surface area resulted in a slower reaction rate.