Source: Laboratory of Dr. Neal Abrams — SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry

All chemical reactions have a specific rate defining the progress of reactants going to products. This rate can be influenced by temperature, concentration, and the physical properties of the reactants. The rate also includes the intermediates and transition states that are formed but are neither the reactant nor the product. The rate law defines the role of each reactant in a reaction and can be used to mathematically model the time required for a reaction to proceed. The general form of a rate equation is shown below:

where A and B are concentrations of different molecular species, m and n are reaction orders, and k is the rate constant. The rate of nearly every reaction changes over time as reactants are depleted, making effective collisions less likely to occur. The rate constant, however, is fixed for any single reaction at a given temperature. The reaction order illustrates the number of molecular species involved in a reaction. It is very important to know the rate law, including rate constant and reaction order, which can only be determined experimentally. In this experiment, we will explore one method for determining the rate law and use it to understand the progress of a chemical reaction.