Surface area has a big effect on the rate of a chemical reaction. Consider the reaction of a metal such as magnesium with an acid. A strip of magnesium will fizz quickly in an acid but if magnesium powder is placed in the same test tube of acid a very violent reaction will take place. The powder will react many many times faster than a strip of magnesium ribbon. This is due to the way the atoms are arranged in the solid strip of magnesium or indeed any solid and how the atoms are arranged in a powder. This is outlined below:
NOTE: breaking a solid into smaller and smaller pieces increases the surface area available to react.

Consider the reaction between marble chips (calcium carbonate) and hydrochloric acid. Equations for these reactions are shown below:

calcium carbonate_(s) + hydrochloric acid_(aq) → calcium chloride_(aq) + carbon dioxide_(g)+ water_(l)

CaCO₃ + 2HCl_(aq) → CaCl_2(aq) + CO_2(g) + H₂O_(l)

Since the reaction of marble chips and hydrochloric acid releases carbon dioxide gas; which is a heavy gas; it will be possible to measure the rate of this reaction by recording the loss in mass say every 15 seconds as the reaction is occurring. The faster the reaction the more carbon dioxide gas will be released and the greater the loss in mass from the conical flask as the gas escapes into the air. If a student were to draw a graph of the results from this experiment what do you think it would show?

The graph opposite shows a typical set of results. The gradient or slope of the line will indicate the loss in mass; the steeper the line the more mass is lost or the more carbon dioxide gas is lost and the faster the reaction taking place. You can see that the small marble chips react faster than the marble chip "lumps". If we were to grind up the lumps into a fine powder and react it in a third conical flask then where do you think the line would appear on the graph?

The steeper the line the more gas is given off in a given time; that is the loss is mass is greatest and the rate of reaction will be fastest. A shallow line on the graph will indicate a slow reaction, a steep line a fast reaction. So if a powder were to be used the slope of the line would be almost vertical and the reaction would likely be over very very quickly.

Since this reaction produces carbon dioxide gas you could of course measure the rate of reaction by measuring the volume of gas released in a given time. The more gas that is released in a given time the faster is the reaction taking place. You would need to have at least five different consistencies of marble chips; ranging from large lumps to a fine powder. If an equal mass of each of the five different consistencies of marble chips were added to the same volume hydrochloric acid with a concentration of 0.5M you could record the volume of carbon dioxide gas released every 10 seconds from the scale on the gas syringe. Although I suspect that as the surface area of the marble chips increases the reaction may finish very quickly! Though you could slow down the reaction by reducing the concentration of the hydrochloric acid or by lowering its temperature. A possible set-up for this experiment is shown below although there are a number of ways of carrying out this experiment.

A typical set of results for this experiment is shown in the table below. Here the student recorded the volume of the carbon dioxide gas every 30 seconds.

A graph of these results is shown opposite. There are a few points you should note from the graph:

• In the first 30 seconds of the reaction 40 ml or 40 cm³ of gas was released.
• In the next 30 seconds the volume of gas went from 40cm³ to 75cm³, so 35 cm³ of gas was released.
• In the next 30 seconds the volume of gas went from 75cm³ to 100cm³, so 25 cm³ of gas was released.
• The curve levels off and is flat when 119cm³ of gas has been released. The fact that the curve is flat tells us that no more products are being made and that the reaction has stopped.
• You can carry on and calculate the amount of gas that was released over the next 30 s and continue it for all the results given. It is clear that the rate of production of gas is falling, that is the rate of the reaction is slowing down. This is obvious from the graph, the slope of the line will give an indication of the rate of reaction, the line to begin with has a steep gradient, indicating a fast reaction but the gradient of the line decreases as time passes. The reactants will be getting used up as the reaction proceeds, so there will be fewer chemicals available to react and so less gas will be produced.

Key Points

• To increase the surface area of a solid you can break it up into smaller pieces or grind it up using a mortar and pestle.
• The smaller the chips or pieces of a solid the larger surface area. Powders have a very large surface area; large lumps have small surface areas relative to their volume.
• The larger the surface area the faster the reaction is likely to be. This is because more of the reacting particles will be able to collide successfully and so form the products.

Check your understanding - Questions on rates and surface area

Next