Abstract:

The rate law and rate constant of the reaction between Blue dye #1 and the bleach (𝑁𝑎𝐶𝑙𝑂) was
determined by using colourimetry, diluted solution technique also with the use of
spectrophotometry and Beer’s Law. To find the rate order with respect to dye and bleach, it is
needed to perform several experiments with the changes in the molar concentration of bleach
and dye. As the result, the overall reaction rate order was the first order since the graph of
𝑙𝑛(𝑑𝑦𝑒) vs 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 is a straight line.

Introduction:
Understanding chemical kinetics is significantly important in many fields such as the
manufacturing of fertilizers, medicines, etc. It is not only about knowing which factors will induce
the reaction to slow down or speed up, but it is also about developing an efficient model by
looking at the value of the rate constant. According to Charles, K. W et, al, (1981), chemical
kinetics is a useful tool that widely uses in the combustion system. The related mechanism
could be applied to the prediction of laminar flame properties in methanol-air mixtures or can be
constructed in the same manner for other practical fuels [1].
In this research, a variety of experiments of Blue dye #1 with two different concentrations of
bleach (0.38 M and 0.76 M) were performed to obtain the overall reaction rate order with the
use of the Microlab spectrophotometer and Beer’s law. It is predicted that the reaction between
Blue dye #1 and bleach will be first order with respect to dye and bleach.

Experimental section: (Method)

The initial reaction was conducted to find the needed volume of Blue dye #1 solution (8.5 mL):
transfer about 7.0-9.0 mL of dye solution into a vial, and fill up to 10 ml solution with bleach how
to make the solution completely change its colour from blue to colourless in about 2 mins. To get
the kinetic plot, six samples of 10 mL were needed, one of them is only water and five of them is
−6
filled with the ratio: 8.5 mL of dye sample (8. 0 * 10 ) by serological pipet and 1.5 mL of 0.38 M
𝑁𝑎𝐶𝑙𝑂 with a stringe. Calibrate the spectrophotometer with the 10.0 water vial. The analytical
wavelength was determined by using the Microlab, which was 615 nm. Then place each vial into
the spectrophotometer and immediately covered it with a black lid. The 𝑙𝑛(𝑎𝑏𝑠𝑜𝑟𝑏𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒) value
and 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 was recorded for each trial and plotted the graph after that. Besides, the 𝑘' value was
recorded to determine the rate constant (𝑘). This process was then repeated for using 0.76 M
𝑁𝑎𝐶𝑙𝑂.
Regarding Beer’s law colourimetry, five 10 mL of standard dye solution were prepared at
concentrations of 0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100%. Again by using the Microlab, the graph
of absorbance and reaction time was plotted, and the slope was used to calculate the
concentrations of dye required to calculate the reaction rate.

Result:
Table 1: the value of rate constant (𝑘):

Concentration of bleach 0.38 𝑀 0.76 𝑀

 Average value of 𝑘' 0.2860 𝑠
−1
0.3570 𝑠
−1

Rate constant (𝑘) −1 −1

0.29 𝑀 𝑠
−1 −1
0.31 𝑀 𝑠

Table 2: Beer’s Law colourimetry

Concentration Absorbance Slope of formula

100% 1.272 1.555 %

−1

80% 0.9921

60% 0.7482

40% 0.2236

20% 0.1013

Discussion:
Based on the graph of 𝑙𝑛(𝑎𝑏𝑠𝑜𝑟𝑏𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒) vs 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒, the overall rate order of the reaction is first order
with respect to both the dye and bleach. In order words, the concentration of bleach will
proportionally affect the rate of reaction, for instance, when the concentration of bleach was
double, the average 𝑘' is also double. The result proves that the hypothesis is correct.
Regarding the absorbance vs time graph, at 15 s the absorbance was 1, and at 65 s the
absorbance was 0.5, which can be concluded that the slope of the graph is not linear

When comparing this result to other groups a similar answer was found (𝑘 ~ 0.3). However,
while conducting the Beer’s law experiment, there were some errors (Noted in the Observation -
EDF). This may be a result of random and systematic errors that occurred when carrying out the
experiments. For example, there may be inaccuracies when pipetting the volume of dye and
bleach; the leak of bleach solution while quickly transferring into the vial. Also, there are two
outliers, which were at the fifth trial of each concentration.

Conclusion:
The objective and hypothesis of this study were satisfied as it showed that the overall order of
reaction was determined to be first order, therefore, the rate law will be rate = k[dye][bleach].

Bibliography:
Charles K. Westbrook, Frederick L. Dryer, Chemical kinetics and modelling of combustion
processes, Symposium (International) on Combustion. 1981,1, 749