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Aerlinn

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Just a few questions:
1. Explain the following observations in terms of the behaviour of particles:
a. There have been many explosions in coal mines. (is this because there is more pressure because of a confined space, so your reactions proceed faster because they collide often?)
c. Bushfires often start during lightning storms (It has something to do with energy, I think...)
d. Iron anchors from shipwrecks can show little corrosion after years in the sea (Low temp?)
e. A burning match is used to light a candle, but the candle continues to burn when the match is extinguished.

2.How would you speed up the rates of these reactions? Explain why the methods you suggested produce an increase in the reaction rate.
a. Wood on a camp fire was burning. (Would adding more wood be an answer, because you are adding more reactant?)
b. Bathroom tiles were being cleaned
c. A cake was baking.
d. A tomato plant was growing.

3. Decide, giving reasons for your answers, whether the following processes are endothermic or exothermic:
a. Recharging of a car battery
b. decomposition of plants in a compost heap.

4. Hydrogen reacts explosively with oxygen to form water. Explain how the energy changes during bond-breaking and bond-forming affect the energy change for this reaction.
5. The combustion of butane gas in protable stoves can be represented by the equation:
2C4H10(g) +13O2(g) ---> 8CO2(g) + 10H20(l); delta H= -5772kJ mol^-1
Draw an energy level diagram/ energy profile for the reaction (which I've done)
Then it says: Describe how your diagram would change for the equation: C4H10(g) + 13/2 O2(g) ---> 4CO2(g) + 5H20(l)
I don't know, how would the energy of the reactants vs. products change when the no. moles are halved?

6. Account for the following observations with reference to the collision model of particle behaviour:
a. A bottle of find aluminium powder has a caution sticker warning that it is 'highly flammable, dust explosion possible.'

7 Explain why surface properties are important to the operation of catalysts. Many industrial catalysts are made into porous pellets. What is the reason for this?

:wave:
 

xiao1985

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q1) how a weird q....
a)explosion in in coal mines... pressure can be one thing, but note that there will be human working down there... which means pressure won't be too high to the degree that it is unbearable... i am thinking more interms of there's poor ventilation... if there would be a gas leak, it's more dangerous as all the combustible gases would concentrate rather than disperse...

b) err? where's b?

c) high voltage caused by the lightning strike heats up the conductor (wet trees) very quickly, and cause it to burn

d) low temp, low o2 concentration

e) the exothermic reaction is sufficient to be self propagating

q2) the questions keep on getting weirder and weirder Oo
a) grind the wood up into smaller woods (better if you have wood powder (increase the surface area of the wood)

b) more concentrated detergent?! Oo

c) increase temperature

d) ... no way man... you can't accelerate this process... it's like asking a 6 yr kid: hey, if i give you the food you need for the next 20 years, can you become like 26 straight way?... no way no way...

q3)
a) endothermic (batteries uses up energy to store them as chemical energy)
b) exothermic (or else why would scavangers break it down?!)
those that been said, i am assuming that endothermic and exothermic includes more than temperature... endo = absorbing energy, exo = releasing energy

q4) energy is released when bonds form... and absorbed to break existing bonds... the bonds between H2 and O2 must break first, in order for H2O to form... so you will see that energy is absorbed first, then relseased up on the formation of H2O

q5) halved... dH for the first reaction is for per mole of the reaction, ie per TWO mole of butane... which means dH for the 2nd reaction per mole (per ONE mole of butane) gotta be halfed

q6) you mean a bottle of fine al powder?
powder = fine = very very high surface area... Al react with alot of things exothermically... to relsease lotsa energy... high SA = high reaction rate = high amount of energy in a short period = explosive

q7) ^SA = ^ catalysis rate... = good ^^... porous (think sponge) has LOTSA LOTSA SA = very very good...
 
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Aerlinn

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1a. I dunno, why would those gases concentrate if there's a gas leak? *puzzled*
b. Heh, there is no b, I guess c should be b xD
c. Aha, so in 'smaller terms' would that mean the lightning's high voltage makes the reaction get over the activation energy barrier quickly?

2b. I suppose... What does detergent and cleaner stuff do anyway, murder the bacteria? I don't see how that is classified as a reaction...
d. Heheh, no. But I guess could put the plant in a greenhouse *thinks*

3 b. So this one... it's exothermic because heat is released during the decomposition process?

5. I know it's all halved, ie. dH is halved, but how does that reflect changes in the energy profile? Would you halve the total energy of the reactants and the total energy of the products, and would activation energy stay the same?
ie this is a rough sketch of what I mean. I have no idea if it's right/ wrong so correct me if I'm wrong...
 
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xiao1985

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1a) normally, if the gas was left on, and you have your windows open (well ventillated), the gas will not build up as much in your house.... even if there is a spark, the exothermic reaction will not be as destructively... but ppl work in mines do not enjoy such luxury... if a gas should leak, they will localise in the mine, and they can only be ventillated through passive diffusion... this is a slow process, and you can be damn sure that before most gas can diffuse out, a spark's gonna trigger the reaction and "KABOOM"....

c) that's a good interpretation of it...

q2) b) detergent act as a surfactant... it wraps it self around the grease and then making the grease water soluable.... which is why adding more detergent can dissolve more grease... (hmmm... faster? as well? hopefully)

q3) b) decomposition only happens because the bacteria scavengers break down organic matters in order to obtain energy from it to live on. which is why energy is released (and utilised by the bacteria)

q4) all good... except i think Ea doens't half... because the energy barrier should not be effected by how much stuff you have... (ie the two arrows of Ea should be the same length)
 

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