Introduction: Chemical kinetics is the branch of chemistry that typically involves the study of

chemical reactions with reference to reaction rates, formation of the intermediates,

rearrangement of atoms and the effect of various variables on the reaction. In the world of
chemical kinetics and chemical reactions in general, certain requirements must be met in order
for a reaction to take place and be studied at the kinetic level. These requirements include;
collision of the atoms or molecules of the reactants within the chemical reaction, molecules must
contain sufficient energy (activation energy) to initiate the reaction, and in some cases, the
orientation of the molecules during the collision must be taken in to consideration. Chemical
reaction rates are the rates of change in concentration or amounts of either reactants or products.
Factors that influence the rate of reactions includes; the nature of the reactants, temperature,
concentration effect (refers to rate laws and integrated rate laws), heterogeneous reactions, and
catalysts. Chemical kinetics is crucially important in our everyday life, for example, kinetics can
tell us how quickly a medicine is able to work on a patient, rate of formation and depletion of the
ozone layer, and also important to industrial practices such as the production of catalysts to
synthesize new materials.
Chemical kinetics describes the Sn1 reaction as a “first order” overall reaction, given that
the alkyl halide is first order in concentration and zeroeth in the concentration of the nucleophile.
Due to the help of kinetics, it is able to confirm that only one molecule is involved in the
transition state of the rate-limiting of the reaction, hence the name “Sn1” reaction (Substitution,
Nucleophilic, unimolecular). The Sn1 mechanism is a multistep process. The first step is a slow
ionization to form a carbocation. The second step is a fast attack on the carbocation by a
nucleophile. The carbocation must be a strong enough electrophile to induce a fast attack with
the nucleophile. The nucleophiles in Sn1 reactions are generally weak, due to the fact that a
strong nucleophile would have a higher tendency to attack the substrate and force a second-order
reaction. An uncharged molecule such as water or alcohol, the positively charged product must
lose a proton to give the final uncharged product.

In this experiment, the Sn1 kentics of cumyl chloride was investigated, whereby the first order
rate constants, half-lives and activation energy of the reaction was obtained, graphed, and
tabulated. All results gathered at the conclusion of the experiment were then compared to the
literature values of a previous research.
Results:
Discussion:
Experimental: Ethanol (~3-4mL) was added into the cuvette and placed in the
spectrophotometer. Temp was equilibrated for 15 min. Solution of cumyl chloride (20 L) in
ether (0.05 M) was injected into the cuvette using a micro syringe. Cuvette was inverted 3 times
before being placed back into the spectrometer. The reaction started, readings were recorded
every 5 mins for RT conditions for 60 mins. Readings were recorded every 3 min for 30 mins
when the reaction was at 30 C, and reading for the reaction under 35 C were recorded every
minute for 20 min.

Conclusion: The kinetic reaction of cumyl chloride reaction was successfully carried out.
Whereby