Final answer:
Chemical reactions and sanitization of equipment often depend on the concentration of the reactants. Doubling the concentration of hydrogen iodide (HI) in a reaction causes the rate to quadruple because the relationship is quadratic.
Step-by-step explanation:
To sanitize clean-in-place equipment, the concentration of a sanitizer may need to increase by a certain multiple in comparison to its normal use-level to ensure proper disinfection. When discussing reaction rates, an important principle in chemistry is that the rate of reaction is proportional to the concentration of the reactants raised to a power. In the case of the reaction involving hydrogen iodide (HI), if the concentration of HI is doubled, it can be shown through rate equations that the rate of reaction will increase by a factor of four.
The calculation follows from the rate equation for a reaction that is second order with respect to HI: rate = k[HI]2. If [HI] is doubled, the rate equation becomes rate = k(2[HI])2 = 4k[HI]2. This means that the reaction rate will quadruple. Following this principle, if we apply this to the sanitization process, increasing the concentration of the cleaning agent to a multiple of four times (quadruple) the normal level would be the correct answer to ensure the equipment is properly sanitized.