A Series of Experiments on Alkyl Urea Nitrosation Kinetics

TCE

The Chemical Educator

ISSN: 1430-4171 (electronic version)

Table of Contents

Abstract Volume 9 Issue 4 (2004) pp 231-233

A Series of Experiments on Alkyl Urea Nitrosation Kinetics

Guillermo González-Alatorre,* Rafael Chávez-Contreras, Patricia Garza Navarro, Paola Canchola Balderas, Eleazar Escamilla Silva, Julio Rocha Patiño, Alejandro Estrada Baltasar, and Juan Francisco Javier Alvarado

Instituto Tecnológico de Celaya, Avenida Tecnológico y García Cubas S/N, CP 38010, Celaya, Guanajuato, México, alatorre@iqcelaya.itc.mx or galatorre61@hotmail.com
Received January 21, 2004. Accepted April 13, 2004.

Published online: 13 July 2004

Abstract. A series of kinetic experiments for the nitrosation of dimethylurea is presented. The required reagents are inexpensive and reaction progress is followed using a double-beam recording spectrophotometer. The objective of the experiments is for students to obtain the reaction order and the rate constant using both a differential and an integral procedure, examine the effect of proton concentration on the reaction rate constant, deduce the theoretical rate equation from the proposed reaction mechanism, and analyze the effect of temperature on the reaction rate constant. The experimental results fit, with high linear correlation factors, the equations deduced for both differential and integral methods, presenting an excellent opportunity to learn the principles of chemical kinetics and analysis of the reaction mechanism.

Key Words: Laboratories and Demonstrations; physical chemistry; kinetics

(*) Corresponding author. (E-mail: alatorre@iqcelaya.itc.mx)

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Supporting Materials:

This series of experiments can be divided into five assignments. Each assignment is usually completed in one two-hour laboratory session and is available in one Zip file (197 KB).