This week in chemistry we learned all about solutions and reaction rates. Solutions take a lot of practice to get them just right. The first thing you need to know about solutions is the difference between a solute and a solvent. A solute is the substance being dissolved and the solvent is the substance that does the dissolving. We learned that there are different factors that have to take place in order for a reaction to take place. One of the three is called agitation which is when you stir/shake the solution to produce more collisions between the particles. The second is to create a smaller particle size; this means creating greater surface area to allow more collisions for faster dissolving. The last is to increase the temperature, this increases the force and frequency of the collisions between the solvent and solute. There are also three kinds of solubility, the amount of substance that will dissolve in a solvent. Unsaturated solution is when more solute can be dissolved, saturated solutions is when the maximum amount of solute dissolved in a specific amount of solvent, and supersaturated solutions is when the solution contains more dissolved solute than a saturated solution, this is also a very unstable solution. Concentration is the amount of solute dissolved in a specific amount of solvent or solution. We measure of concentration by dividing the moles of solution by the liters of solution. There is also another formula for dilutions that is M1V1=M2V2, this is used to find the dilutions.
Reaction Rates have many rules to get them just right. The reaction rate of a chemical reaction is the amount of product formed or the amount of reactant per unit of time. For a reaction to happen there needs to kinetic energy and the collision theory need to take place. Kinetics is reaction rates, how reaction rates change under varying conditions and what happens on the particle level. The collision theory has three rules there needs to be a collision, the substances must collide in the correct orientation, and the substances must collide with sufficient energy. High Ea, energy, has few collisions and low Ea has more collisions. There are many parts of a energy diagram that you should memorize. You should remember that reactants are at the beginning of the energy chart and products are at the end. AC is at the top of the hill of the energy chart, Ea is what the reactants have to overcome to become products, and Q is telling whether the energy chart is positive or negative.
In the dilutions lab we started by doing the math to figure out how many grams of the CuSo4 we need to have and we did this by using the concentration formula. After found this out we filled out big flask half way with water and poured the solution in. We shook the flask till the solvent was completely dissolved. When it was completely dissolved we add more water til we filled the flask to the line. After this we used to Dilution formula to figure out how much of the stock solution we needed to pour into the small flask. After we poured it into the small flask we filled it with water to the small flask line. In the end we had a diluted solution and a concentrated solution.
The one on the left is the diluted solution and the one on the right is the concentrated solution. For more information about diluted and concentrated solutions vist: http://chemistry.tutorvista.com/physical-chemistry/dilute-solution.html?view=simple
