TheChemicalReactionRatesOfVitaminCInVaryingQuantities

DJWolfson,ShendoYafuso,Mr.Ruppel
HighTechHighNorthCounty,SanMarcos,CA92078

Abstract:

Introduction
Chemicalreactionratesarethemainfocusoftheexperimentdoneinthelabexperiment.
Chemicalreactionsarewhathappenswhentwomoleculesoratomscollideintotogetherto
causingareaction.Areactionbetweentwomoleculesoccurwhennewchemicalbondsare
formed.Thefirstruleforchemicalreactionisthatthetwomoleculesmustcollideintheright
orientationtoconnecttogetherandreact.Ifthetwomoleculesdontcollidetogetherproperly,
thetwomoleculesbounceawayanddontreact.Thesecondruleisthetwomoleculesmust
collidewithenoughenergytoovercometheenergybarrier.Thereactantshaveahighamountof
energyingeneral,butneedtoincreasetheamountofenergytoactivatethereaction.Thisisalso
knownasActivationEnergy( EA )anditrequiresalargeamountofenergyinthereactantsto
becometheproduct.Althoughacatalystcanbeusedtodecreasetheneededenergyforareaction
totakeplace,anddoesntuseanyofthecatalystintheprocess.Itwashypothesisedthatthe
chemicalascorbicacidwoulddecreasetheamountoftimethemixtureofchemicalstakesto
transitionfromcleartoyellowasthequantityofascorbicacidsincreases.
Thisexperimentsrequiresthesematerials:
Distilledwater
Water
100mLbeakerlabeledA
100mLbeakerlabeledB
250mLbeaker
25mLgraduatedcylinder
Ascorbicacidstocksolution
Povidoneiodinesolution
hydrogenperoxide(3%)solution
Starchsolution

Experimental:
Thefirstexperimentwaswiththebaseamountofeverychemicalneeded.This
experimentwasdonebeforeaspecificchemicalwasdecidedupontobeadjusted.Sincetwo
chemicalsreactwhenputtogether,beakerAheldascorbicacidandiodinesolution,beakerB
healdhydrogenperoxideandstarchsolution.ThefirstExperimenthadtendropsofascorbic
acid,25dropsofiodinesolution,60dropsofhydrogenperoxide,and10dropsofstarchsolution.
Distilledwaterisalsobeingusedintheexperiment,andwillalwaysbeusedataconstantof

5mLandwillneverbechanged.OncebeakerAandBwereaddedtothemixingbeaker,the
timethemixturetooktotransitionfromcleartoyellowwasobserved,timed,andrecorded.
Thesecondexperimenttakesplaceaftertheascorbicacidwaschosenasthechemical
thatwouldbeadjustedtofindoutwhatthechemicaldoestothetimeandtransitionthattakes
place.Sincethisexperimentonlyhasonechemicalchangeinquantity,theotherchemicalswill
beconsideredaconstantoftheamountofdropshownabove.Thenewquantityofascorbicacid
is15dropsinsteadof10withtoseewhetheradding5moredropswillincreaseordecreasethe
amountoftimetakenforthetransitiontooccur.Thenewamountofascorbicacid,andtheiodine
solutionwereaddedtobeakerA,andtheiodinesolutionandhydrogenperoxidewereaddedto
beakerB.beakerAandBwereaddedtothemixturebeakerandthedatawasrecordedand
timed.
Thethird,fourthfifth,andsixthexperimentwerefailuresduetomiscountingtheamount
ofiodineinbeakerAcausingareactiontotakeplaceinbeakerAbeforebeingpouredintothe
mixturebeaker.Datawasrecordedforthethirdexperiment,althoughtheotherexperiment
werentrecordedsincetheexperimentinvolvedtwodifferentchemicalshavingunknown
amountsofdropsinvolved.Fortheseventhexperiment,had8dropsofascorbicacidaddedinto
beakerAaswellastheoriginalamountsoftheotherchemicals.BeakerAandBwerepoured
intothemixturecup,andthedatawastimedandrecorded.

ResultsandDiscussion:

Experiment
Number

Ascorbic
Acid

Iodine
Solution

Hydrogen
Peroxide

Starch
Solution

Transition
Time
Yellow
(Min:Sec)

Transition
TIme
Red
(Min:Sec)

#1

10

25

60

10

1:40

3:00

#2

15

25

60

10

1:35

2:50

#3(Failure)

25

60

10

0:10

N/A

#4(Failure)

~30

~25

60

10

N/A

N/A

#5(Failure)

~30

~25

60

10

N/A

N/A

#6(Failure)

~30

~25

60

10

N/A

N/A

#7(Failure)

25

60

10

1:30

N/A

Aboveisthedatacollectedforallsevenexperiments.Experiments46werefailures
sinceBeakerAhadamiscountedamountofdropsofeitherascorbicacidoriodinesolution.
Experiment#3and#7wouldbeconsideredusable,butdatawasonlyrecordedforthetimethe
chemicalstooktotransitionfromcleartoyellowtheexperimentrequiresbothcleartoyellow
transitiontimes,andcleartoredtransitiontimes..Intotal,twoofthesevenexperimentswere
fullyrecorded,andcanbeobservedproperlysinceonlyonevariablewasadjustedallowing
properobservationaboutwhatexactlythatvariablechangesinthereaction.Hereisagraphof
thetwousabledatapieces:

Abovearethetwodatasetsthatareusableforthisreportthefirstredandbluecolumns
representexperiment#1andthetwocolumnstotherightareexperiment2.Whatcanbe
gatheredfromthetwocolumnsofdataisthatanincreaseintheamountofascorbicacidwill
decreasethetimeittakeforthecolortransitiontooccur.

Conclusions:
Notenoughdatawasuseablefromthelab,andtwopiecesofdataisntenoughtomakea
conclusion.Thisisespeciallytruesinceexperiment3,whichwasdeemedunusableshoweda
veryquicktransitionfromcleartoyellowwhichwouldcontradictwhatisshownonthegraph.It
couldbeconcludedthatanincreaseintheamountofascorbicacidwoulddecreasehowlongit
takesforthemixturetotransitionfromcleartoyellow,butthereisntenoughrawdatatoback
thisclaimup.

References:
LectureNotes