What will speed up a chemical reaction

More product will form. Those product molecules that do form can be removed. This prevents them from re-forming the original molecules thus defeating the purpose of the reaction. In strongly exergonic reactions this may not help much, but in mildly exergonic reactions, decreasing the concentration of products will 'pull' a reaction in the direction of more product molecules. The amount of extra energy, the activation energy needed to get a reaction started, can be reduced.

If less activation energy is needed, then more reactant molecules will have enough energy to make productive collisions, and the speed of the reaction will increase. A catalyst is an agent that lowers the activation energy of a reaction.

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These activities are designed to be carried out by children working with a parent, guardian or other appropriate adult. The adult involved is fully responsible for ensuring that the activities are carried out safely. Your email address will not be published. Home » How to speed up a chemical reaction Last week we tried a simple chemical reaction to investigate alka seltzer reacting with water.

The nature of the reactants Reactants are the two substances you combine to get the reaction. Particle Size The smaller the particles the faster the reaction, this is because there is a larger surface area available to react with the other substance. When temperature increases, particles move faster and have greater energy. This increases the frequency of effective collisions to increase reaction speed. Another way to increase the frequency of effective collision is to crowd the same space with ever more reacting particles.

This is when:. When concentration or pressure increases, there are more particles more unit volume. When reactants are in different physical states that do not mix, the reaction only happens at the surface where the two reactants are in contact. When we halve the copper II oxide particle, we create two new contact surfaces where the knife went through. Generally, when we reduce the particle size by finely dividing, grinding or pulverising a solid, we increase the surface area.

This makes effective collisions more frequent at the more extensive surface. When particle size decreases, there is a greater surface area of contact. This increases the frequency of effective collision to increase reaction speed. A chemical reaction occurs when the molecules of the reactants collide with one another in the reacting environment. The rate at which a reaction occurs depends on the rate of the collision of the molecules, and the collision rate depends on various factors, which can be altered to change the rate of a reaction.

The reaction rate can be increased by the action of one or more of these factors. A catalyst is a substance that can alter the rate of a chemical reaction. Catalysts can be successfully used to increase the rate of a chemical reaction. Also, catalysts are subjective in nature, i. A catalyst is not consumed in the reaction, and it does not change the products of the reaction. For example, decomposition of potassium chlorate starts at degrees Fahrenheit in the presence of manganese dioxide as a catalyst.

Otherwise, in the absence of the catalyst, this reaction is a slow process, which starts at degrees Fahrenheit.