Question

You wish to produce carbon dioxide for an experiment with plant growth. Vinegar (acetic acid) in a solution will react with chalk (calcium carbonate) to produce carbon dioxide. Your present experimental setup is not producing carbon dioxide quickly enough. What can you do to increase the rate of reaction?

A. Warm the solution up.
B. Add less acetic acid to the solution.
C. Add more water to the acetic acid solution.
D. Reduce the volume of solution by pouring some out.

Answer 1

I believe the correct answer is B

Answer 2

Warm the solution up.

Step-by-step explanation:

The rate of a reaction is the number of moles of reactants converted or products formed per unit time.

Factors which affect reaction rates include:

I. Nature of the reactants.

II. Concentration of solid and liquid reactants.

III. Pressure of gaseous reactants.

IV. Surface area of the reactants.

V. Temperature of the reaction mixture.

VI. Intensity of light.

VII. Catalyst.

For the above case, warming the solution will increase the temperature of a reaction system. When the temperature is raised, heat energy is supplied to the reactants and:

I. The number of particles with energies equal to or greater than the activation energy of the reaction increases.

II. There is increase in the average speed of the reactant particles due to their greater kinetic energy leading to higher frequency of collisions. This subsequently increases the number of effective collisions, the reaction proceeds at a faster rate and the volume of carbon dioxide produced will increase.

Another easier way is to reduce the amount of water added to the acetic acid so as to increase its concentration, thus, producing more gas.