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Arrhenius equation and activation energy

I'm doing the OCR Salters Investigation on Hydrogen Peroxide decomposition and I'm using the Arrhenius equation to calculate the activation energy for the reaction as I've experimented with different temperatures. I understand the Arrhenius equation to be:
k = Ae^(-Ea/RT) which can be rewritten as
lnk = lnA Ea/RT
lnk = (-Ea/R * 1/T) + lnA which can be written in the form
y = mx + c

So by plotting lnk against 1/T and finding the gradient of this, I will find -Ea/R.

I did this by working out the initial rate of reactions for the different temperatures that I did (ranging from 3°C to 50°C) then using the rate equation I worked out k.

That was all fine, and yes I remembered to convert my temperatures in to Kelvin, but when I got the gradient of the line and multiplied by the gas constant R I got Ea = 1.458, whereas it should be about 75...

Anyone got any ideas where I went wrong? Help would be appreciated :smile:
Reply 1
I want just get your attention to graph did we determine lnk or we should say ln (a/a-x)..according to the order.. and the rate constant appear with slope..
Maybe ,you will take this note at picture to reconsider your work.

hope that push you to do well and please let me know the right idea to solve this problem.

good luck
RedKitty
I'm doing the OCR Salters Investigation on Hydrogen Peroxide decomposition and I'm using the Arrhenius equation to calculate the activation energy for the reaction as I've experimented with different temperatures. I understand the Arrhenius equation to be:
k = Ae^(-Ea/RT) which can be rewritten as
lnk = lnA Ea/RT
lnk = (-Ea/R * 1/T) + lnA which can be written in the form
y = mx + c

So by plotting lnk against 1/T and finding the gradient of this, I will find -Ea/R.

I did this by working out the initial rate of reactions for the different temperatures that I did (ranging from 3°C to 50°C) then using the rate equation I worked out k.

That was all fine, and yes I remembered to convert my temperatures in to Kelvin, but when I got the gradient of the line and multiplied by the gas constant R I got Ea = 1.458, whereas it should be about 75...

Anyone got any ideas where I went wrong? Help would be appreciated :smile:


did you work out k in the correct units?
did you use the correct gas constant?

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