Materials and Methods

The aim of this study is to design a continuous-stirred tank reactor based on the based on the
differential analysis of the rate of the reaction between iodide and hydrogen peroxide in an acidic
environment. In order to achieve this, the following apparatus and reagents were used to perform
the experiment and are presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Equipment and materials

Apparatus
Description Specification
Beaker 500 mL
Volumetric flask 500 mL
Pipette 10 mL
Test tubes 50 mL
Magnetic stirrer 200 rpm
Reagents
Acetate buffer solution 0.5 M, pH 3.0
Sodium thiosulfate 0.02 M
Potassium iodide 0.3 M
Hydrogen peroxide 6% v/v
Starch solutio

The variation of the initial concentration of the reactants was employed in the initial method of
determining the order and rate constants of the reactions. The experimental solutions are
presented in Table 2.

Table 2. Experimental solutions for varying KI and H2O2 initial concentrations

KI initial concentration variation

Sampl H2O Buffer Na2S2O3 H2O (mL) up H2O2
KI (mL) Starch (mL)
e (mL) (mL) (mL) to: (mL)
A 150 25 10 5 25 275 25
B 150 25 15 5 25 275 25
C 150 25 20 5 25 275 25
D 150 25 25 5 25 275 25
H2O2 initial concentration variation
A 100 25 25 5 25 200 100
B 100 25 25 5 25 225 75
C 100 25 25 5 25 250 50
D 150 25 25 5 25 275 25
2.1 Determination of the order of the reaction

Assume that the rate of the reaction under acidic conditions is given by,

r =k ¿ ¿

where k is the rate coefficient, ¿ is the iodide concentration, [ H 2 O2 ] is the hydrogen peroxide
concentration and a and b are the order of the reaction with respect to iodide and hydrogen
peroxide, respectively. Suppose that we measured the rate using some baseline concentrations of
iodide and hydrogen peroxide, ¿ and ¿ respectively. The baseline rate is denoted by r 0 .

The ratio between the new rate and the baseline rate is given by the following equation

r
=¿ ¿ ¿
r0

r
=¿ ¿
r0

In this case linear regression can be used to determine an experimental value. By taking the
natural logarithms of both sides of equation,

ln ( rr )=a ln ¿
0

Therefore if we measure the reaction rate at some concentration of iodide and then make several
more measurements at differing concentrations of iodide and plot ln ⁡(r /r 0 ) as a function of ln ⁡¿
the slope will be equal to a, the order of the reaction with respect to the iodide concentration.
Similar reasoning is applied to measure the order of the reaction with respect to the hydrogen
peroxide concentration.

ln ( rr )=b ln ¿
0

2.2 Estimation of the pseudo rate coefficient

The pseudo rate coefficient with respect to iodide and another pseudo rate coefficient with
respect to hydrogen peroxide are to be estimated. To estimate a pseudo rate coefficient with
respect to iodide, use the data where the iodide was varied and the hydrogen peroxide
concentration was kept constant. Under these conditions, let k ' =k [ H 2 O2 ]b , and the expression
for the reaction rate becomes:

r =k ' ¿
If the measured reaction rate, r, is plotted as a function of ¿ then k ' can be determined from the
slope.

To estimate a pseudo rate coefficient with respect to hydrogen peroxide, use the data were the
hydrogen peroxide was varied and the iodide concentration was kept constant. Define this
pseudo rate coefficient k '' =k ¿ and the expression for the reaction rate becomes,

r =k ' ' [ H 2 O2 ] b

If the measured reaction rate, r, is plotted as a function of[ H 2 O2 ]b then k ' ' can be determined
from the slope.

2.3 Design of the CSTR

The design of the reactor is based on the conventional reactor tank with installed stirrer inside
and connected to tubes where the feed flows from the top of the tank and the product flows
through the tube connected to the bottom part of the tank. The materials used in constructing a
small CSTR are mostly plastic since such as plastic containers and levelling tubes. A small
dynamo is connected to the stirrer and then installed inside the tank such that the dynamo is
located at the top cover of the reactor vessel. For the reactor sizing, the Levenspiel approach is
used by plotting the rate function and conversion.

F A0 X A
V=
−r A