How Does Surface Area Affect The Rate Of Reaction

When analysing the graph, you can see that there is a relation between the rate of reaction and the surface area. The larger the surface are, the faster the rate of reaction seems to be. However, although the grain with the largest surface area (the smallest grain) reached the highest point within the shortest amount of time, its end result was still lower then the medium sized grain.

The explanation for this result is relatively easy. The rate of a chemical reaction can be increased by increasing the size of the surface area to volume ratio of the solid reactant. Cutting or making a fine powder of the solid reactant gives the reactant an increased surface area. The reason why the particles are able to react faster when there is a larger surface area is because more particles are exposed to the reactant, and more collisions between them occur. After a certain time however, the amount of CO2 would have been equal for every size of grain, as there was a relatively equal amount of reactants. The only difference between them is
Improvements can be made, as our results were not as accurate as we would have liked them to be. These improvements include being more careful when measuring out the hydrochloric acid in the graduated cylinder, putting the lid of the tube on faster right after the calcium chloride has been added so that no gas produced can escape, and making sure the very fine grains do not get stuck on the tube instead of going all the way down the tube into the hydrochloric acid. The rate of a chemical reaction is the speed at which the reaction takes place (the speed at which molecules combine). The rate of reaction can vary, and there are different factor that influences the speed of reaction such as temperature, concentration/pressure and amongst other things, the surface area of a solid reactant. The aim of