What affects rates of chemical reactions?
A rate of reaction is the speed at which a reaction takes place. Changing a certain factor will affect the rate of reaction, and the reaction might take a longer or shorter time.
There are 5 factors that affect the rate of a chemical reaction, and these are:
Temperature
Making substances hotter makes their particles move faster, so chemical reactions take less time to happen!
But if you make them colder, their particles will move slowly, so it will take more time.
Concentration
Concentration means how much of a substance is mixed with another.
Increasing the concentration speeds up chemical reactions as there are more of those particles.
Decreasing concentration leads to slower rates of reaction.
Surface Area
Crushing a substance increases its surface area, so more particles are in contact.
This means faster reactions! But if you leave a substance whole in the solution, it will take longer.
Stirring
Stirring causes particles to get closer together, speeding up a reaction!
But if you don’t stir, it will take longer for the particles to get closer, slowing down a reaction.
Catalysts
A catalyst is a chemical that you can add to speed up a reaction.
They help to boost particles’ energy so they react faster!
Without a catalyst, the chemical reaction would be so slow!
