Catalysts

Catalysts are chemicals that speed up a reaction (increase the reaction rate) by holding the reactants in the correct orientation. This lowers the activation energy required to start the reaction, because the reactants are already "facing the right way", so increasing the reaction rate.

(not the most exciting video, but it shows the experiment I was going to do with you in class as a demonstration)

Catalysts found in nature are called enzymes. The following video shows how effective enzymes are as catalysts...

Explaining Reaction Rate Change

We need to explain the results of experiments using the Collision Theory. We worked through two examples in class today before doing a simple experiment based upon Surface Area (and having to explain that)

Collision Theory and Reaction Rate

Chemical reactions occur when particles collide with enough energy and in the correct orientation. We can speed up (or slow down) reactions by changing some of the conditions that will cause reactions to occur:

• more often
• with more energy
• in the correct orientation

This part of the topic is focused on how we affect the rate of a reaction, using our knowledge of the Collision Theory.

Carbonates

One of the special types of bases that we learn about in this topic are the carbonates (and hydrogen carbonates).

We need to know the reactions of carbonates, and how to test for one of the products - carbon dioxide.

Neutralisation and Salts

Today we looked at what happens when a neutralisation reaction occurs:

Then we explored how to name the salts created in these reactions:

After this, we did an experiment, where we neutralised hydrochloric acid with a sodium carbonate solution. The resulting solution was heated to evaporate off the water, and we saw the salt formed by the neutralisation reaction.