Results and Discussion

The rate constant and order of the reaction were calculated using the experimental data with the
aid of MS Excel. This section discusses the effect of variation of iodide and hydrogen peroxide
initial concentrations, and estimation of pseudo rate coefficient.

3.1 Variation of iodide initial concentration

Using solution 4 as the baseline solution (see Table 2), the ratios, ¿ ¿, for the solutions 1, 2, 3 and
4 were calculated. The ratios of the measured rates, r /r 0 , were also obtained. Taking the natural
logarithms, ln ⁡¿ as the independent variable and ln ⁡(r /r 0 ) as the dependent variable, a linear
regression was performed. The plot is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Plot of ln ⁡¿ versus ln ⁡(r /r 0 ).

The order of the reaction with respect to iodide concentration was represented by the slope of the
curve generated with a shared variance, R2 of 0.9938 which means that the data fitted
satisfactorily. The order with respect to iodide is 0.6735 which indicates that the reaction is
clearly non-elementary.

3.2 Variation of H 2 O2 initial concentration

In this part of the experiment, the concentration of KI was held constant. Using solution 4 as the
baseline solution (see Table 2), the ratios, [ H 2 O2 ] /¿, for the solutions A,B, C and D were
calculated. The ratios of the measured rates, r /r 0 , were also obtained. Taking the natural
logarithms, ln ⁡¿ as the independent variable and ln ⁡(r /r 0 ) as the dependent variable, a linear
regression was performed. The plot is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Plot of ln ⁡¿ versus ln ⁡(r /r 0 ).

The order of the reaction with respect to H 2 O 2 was found to be 1.0355 as indicated by the slope
of the line as shown in Figure 2. A shared variance of 0.9995 indicates that the date fitted well.
The reaction order can be considered as a first order reaction with respect to H 2 O2 . However,
considering the overall reaction order, from that of KI, the reaction is still concluded to be non-
elementary.

3.3 Estimation of pseudo rate coefficient

The rate constant was determined using the pseudo estimation. From the baseline solution D, the
rate in terms of moles of hydrogen peroxide per minute and [ H 2 O2 ]b were calculated. To
linearize, the natural logarithms of the values were obtained and tabulated. The values were
b
plotted, ln ⁡(rate) as the dependent variable and ln ⁡( [ H 2 O 2 ] ) as the independent variable. The
graph is presented in Figure 3.
Figure 3. Determining the rate constant of the reaction.

The shared variance of 0.9995 showed that the data fitted satisfactorily. The value of the rate
constant was determined using the value of the y-intercept of the line. Taking the antilog of the
value and dividing it by the concentration of KI, the rate constant is equal to
0.71
L
0.45415 ( )
mol
min−1. Therefore the rate equation of the reaction is:

0.71
L
−r =0.45415 ( )
mol
min−1 ¿ ¿

3.4 Reactor sizing

A small CSTR was constructed with a reactor volume of 0.5 L and total feed flow rates of 4
mL/s (2 mL/s in each reactant). Using the established rate equation, the conversion of in the
reactor can be calculated at varying initial feed concentrations in the inflow. The initial
concentrations of KI and H2O2 are set as equimolar. The volume of a CSTR can be represented
as the shaded areas in the Levenspiel plot shown in Figure 4. For an initial concentration of 1.0
M for each reactant, the corresponding conversion is about 40%. To achieve higher conversion,
say 90%, from Figure 5, the required reactor volume is 20 L which is very large for a laboratory
scale reactor.

In a practical sense, the 40% conversion is relatively low. The conversion can be
increased if either the initial concentration of the reactant is increased or the flow rate is
decreased (so as to promote increased reaction time). On the other hand, a series of CSTR can be
proposed. However, the economics of this reactor must be primarily considered in decision
making.
Figure 4. Plot of the Fao/r versus conversion X. The view of the curve is intensified by lowering
the maximum and minimum values in the axes.

Figure 5. Plot of the Fao/r versus conversion X. The curve is extended up to the conversion of
1.0.