Hydrogen Peroxide Investigation

Name :Abdullahi Dahir Warsame

Chemistry internal assessment:

Investigate the catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide

Research question:

How will varying the concentration of hydrogen peroxide affect the rate of reaction measured by collecting the amount of oxygen produced figure 1 shows how catalyst provide alternate pathways

Background: For my internal assessment I will be investigating the catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide using manganese(IV)oxide( MnO2 ) as a catalyst. I will be testing how varying concentrations of hydrogen peroxide will affect its decomposition when manganese(IV)oxide( MnO2 ) is used as a catalyst .

I found catalysts interesting after experimenting with them in a lab we did during class time.

Manganese (IV) oxide is an inorganic compound and a heterogeneous catalyst .Heterogeneous catalysis happens when the catalyst is in different phase from the reactant so since hydrogen peroxide is liquid and Manganese (IV) oxide is solid at room temperature this qualifies as heterogeneous catalysis, In heterogeneous catalysis, the reactants diffuse to the catalyst surface and adsorb onto it, via the formation of chemical bonds. After reaction, the products desorb from the surface and diffuse away.Hydrogen peroxide decomposes slowly therefore the use of a catalyst will show a great increase in the rate of decomposition at room temperature. Hydrogen peroxide decomposes to form water and oxygen .The chemical formula for this reaction is : 2 H2O2 2 H2O +O

The triplicate trials all consistently prove that the correlation is present ,the graph seems to be positively correlating with the rate of reaction.The reactions all started immediately but to varying degrees. The concentration variance dedicated to what degree the reaction was spontaneous but it is safe to say that concentration has a positive trend on rate of reaction.

The error bars seem to be relatively close which could indicate that there was minimal error despite trouble measuring the initial rate of the reactions.we can see how the gradient of graph 1 decreases as we move along the horizontal axis and since the gradient is equal to the rate of reaction it further supports my hypothesis.