Zinc Concentration Lab

Aim: To create a lab comparing the reaction speed results of more concentrated reaction a to a less concentrated reaction. Hypothesis: We think that the reaction will start faster when as the chemicals are more concentrated during the reaction because the more concentrated it is, the more bonds can be formed. Variables: Dependent Reaction Speed Independent - Zinc powder & HCl concentration

Materials:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 4 testubes 1 Beaker Spatula Paper 0.01M of HCl 0.05M of HCl 1.0M of HCl Scale Zinc Powder

* Measuring the time it took the chemicals to start reacting. *

Procedure:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Take a beaker and fill it with HCl. Pour the HCl into the appropriate testube for 2 inches. Take scale and weigh 2.1g of zinc powder. Pour the zinc powder into the testube filled with HCl Repeat for each amount of concentrated HCl.

Results:
Concentration of HCl 1M 0.1M 0.02M 0.05M Start Reaction Speed 0:04 to start 6:37 to start 11:32 to start Over 20 minutes to start

Discussion:
During this experiment, we noticed very few trends. We used the same amount of zinc in all of the testubes so that they would affect the reaction speed. With the most concentrated HCl, we noticed that the reaction took less than 10 seconds to start. The chemicals started to fizz and bubble right away and the testube started to warm up. The second most concentrated was the 0.1M of HCl. This one was very different from the first and took over 6 minutes to start bubbling, and only started to react when we shook it. Although the reaction did start, there was very little action. The second least concentrated HCl was 0.02M. Obviously, this one took even longer to start reacting even with the shaking. After 11 minutes, there was very little fizzing and bubbling with the zinc. Unlike the 1M of HCl, there was no heating in the testube. The least concentrated amount of HCl was 0.05M. This reaction hadnt started after 15 minutes. My partner and I assumed that it would take much longer than the rest and stopped observing after 15 minutes. There were not any trends with the time differences between each of the experiments. The differences were very large but nothing in common.

Conclusion:
This experiment as a whole was a little bit challenging due to the fact that it is hard to measure when the chemicals would stop reacting. Because of this, we decided that we were going to measure the amount of time it would take for the chemicals to start reacting. This made the experiment much easier. We have concluded that our hypothesis was correct although it wasnt very specific. Trying the experiment several times would improve it and make it more accurate. More trials increase the chances of the experiment being correct. In this study I have learnt that the concentration of the chemical does matter and does effect the reaction to a certain extent.