Research question: What is the effect of Temperature (10C, 20C, 30C, 40C, 50C) on the

rate of reaction() and rate constant() for the decolorization reaction of Blue Food Dye
(C37H34N2O9S3•2Na) and Bleach (NaOCl)?
Introduction
This investigation aims to explore the analysis of the kinetics of reactions via the
incorporation of acid and base, in this case, blue dye and bleach, and its association with
real-life applications. Color additives, which are used to enhance the natural colors of food,
play an influential role in the food industry. On the other hand, bleach is used to decolorize
various substances that have been stained with color. As I have a hobby in baking, I
experienced an accident where I spilled cake icing containing blue dye on my white shirt. I
used the bleach I had at home to remove the stain and to my astonishment, the shirt looked
completely restored after the treatment.
C37H34N2O9S3•2Na + NaClO → colorless product
I wondered whether I could decolorize the stain more effectively based on the Kinetics
chapter that I came across in school. While various factors alter the rate of reaction in an
equation, temperature is a unique variable since it also affects the rate constant as well.
Temperature was chosen as the independent variable because it plays an unparalleled role of
modulating molar kinetic energy kinetic energy and intricately dictating the frequency and
energy of molecular collisions crucial for reaction initiation. As I recalled learning about the
Boltzmann curve that demonstrated the relationship, I chose to investigate the relationship
between temperature and reaction constant and rate of reaction of the neutralization reaction.
. I decided to use spectrophotometry, to observe how changing temperature would alter light
absorption by the spectrophotometer. This led me to my research question:
Research Question
“What is the effect of Temperature (10C, 20C, 30C, 40C, 50C) on the rate of reaction and rate
constant(k) for the decolorization reaction of Blue Food Dye (C37H34N2O9S3•2Na) and Bleach
(NaOCl)?”
Background Information
Bleach generally refers to a chemical used to whiten or sterilize materials by oxidizing them.
(Oxford Languages) The main two types of bleach are oxygen bleach and chlorine bleach.
While chlorine bleach is more hazardous, it is used more commonly due to its reasonable
price. Especially, Sodium Hypochlorite (NaOCl) is one of the most common forms. During
the reaction, it decomposes due to the instability of its hypochlorite anion. Studies indicate
that with every 10°C rise in temperature, NaClO at a consistent initial concentration will
decompose 3.5 times more rapidly (de Abreu, 2015). The decomposition reaction without a
catalyst results in the production of chlorate and chloride:
3ClO-(aq) → 2Cl-(aq) + ClO3-(aq).
Blue dye consists of a single molecule of strong absorbance and has color due to its electronic
structure referred to as a ‘chromophore’. There is an energy gap between the filled orbital and
the unfilled orbitals and when a photon of the correct energy hits the molecule and gets
absorbed, the excited electron from the filled orbital jumps to the unfilled orbital. Small
changes can lead to trivial changes of the molecule while bigger changes may even induce
reduction of the color by completely inactivating the chromophore.
Rate of reation refers to the change in concentration of the reactants over unit time. The rate
expression of this neutralization reaction between blue food dye and Bleach is
Rate = k[NaOCl]m[C37H34N2O9S3•2Na]n
where k is the rate constant and m, n is the order of reaction with respect to dye and bleach
respectively(determined experimentally). The value of m+n is the overall order of the
reaction. The rate of reaction can be easily observed as it is proportional to the absorbance of
the solution. This is defined by the Beer-Lamber Law, which shows a directly proportional
relationship between the concentration and absorbance of a solution.
𝐴 = ε𝑙𝑐
Where A is Absorbance, ε is the molar absorbtivity or extinction coefficient (M-1cm-1), l
means the path length, and c is the concentration in M. The linear relationship between
concentration and abosrbance indicates that absorbance can be converted to concentration. As
they are directly proportional it will not alter the reaction rate or the rate constant of the
reaction. As bleach oxidizes the dye, the blue shade will fade and decolorization will be
observed.
This investigation aims to calculate the impact of temperature on the rate of reaction and the
rate constant of the reaction above. An increase in temperature drives more frequent collision
of particles. This leads to an increase in the kinetic energy of reactant particles. Then, there
are a greater number of particles that have kinetic energy that is equal to or greater than the
activation energy. Activation Energy refers to the minimum amount of energy needed for a
chemical reaction to occur. This is represented by the Maxwell-Boltzmann Curve.
figure 1. Maxwell-Boltzmann Curve on 2 different temperatures
According to Figure 1, the area under the curve, or the number of particles that go through
collision is smaller when the temperature is at T1 compared to a higher temperature at T2.
The shaded region under the curve of respective temperature signifies that when the
temperature is increased, the fractions of particles with higher energy than Ae increase.
The Arrhenius equation expresses the relationship between temperature and the rate constant.
k = Ae(-Ea/RT)
T is temperature in Kelvins, k is rate constant, R is gas constant (8.31JK1mol-1), and A refers
is the frequency factors indicating the frequency of collisions in the reaction. This equation
shows that as T increases, the value of the exponential part of the equation becomes less
negative thus increasing the value of k, the rate constant.
Independent Variables: Temperature (10,20,30,40,50) °C
Temperature of solution(T). The experiment would be conducted at different temperatures of
(10.20.30.40.50) to find the rate of the reaction to determine the rate of reaction and the
reaction constant. Temperature was measured by a thermometer and adjusted using a water
bath. The interval of the temperature was chosen after a preliminary experiment which
showed a larger variation in temperature, enough to give a noticeable change in the rate
constants with each interval, in turn allowing for the construction of a graph with a clearer
trend.
Dependant Variables: The dependent variable is the rate constant(k) of the reaction between
blue food dye and bleach. The units of k can be worked out from the reaction after finding the
order of reaction and the rate of reaction. The rate of reaction will be obtained by plotting the
graph between absorption and reaction time. The direct proportional relationship between
absorption and concentration of blue food dye was explained above. By experimenting with 5
different temperatures, the relationship between rate of reaction and temperature will be
exhibited.
Control Variables: Concentration of dye and bleach, Volume of dye and bleach, Reaction
time, wavelength of spectrophotometer
The dye concentration was kept constant at 0.0001M throughout all the experiment trials as
higher or lower concentrations of dye will alter the reaction rate. The volume of dye was
maintained at 2cm2 throughout the reaction. It was maintained by utilizing a volumetric
pipette which allows small room of error. The bleach concentration was maintained at
0.672M, 5% which was provided by the manufacturer and the volume was maintained at
1cm3 throughout the trials, controlled by volumetric pipettes. Reaction time was set to 200s
and LabQuest2 was used to record the absorbance of solution every 5 seconds. The
wavelength of the spectrophotometer was set to 635nm as it blue color absorbs red light
which has wavelength between 620-750nm. A squared-shaped cuvette with volume of 4cm3
was used throughout all the trials because it had to have a larger volume than the total volume
of reactants was 3cm3.
1) Material List
● 50cm3 5% NaOCL
● 0.792g dye (powder)
● 1000cm3 distilled water
● 10ml Volumetric pipette
● Weighing scale
● Weighing boat
● Vernier Spectrophotometer
● LabQuest 2
● Thermometer
● Water Bath
● Ice cubes
● 2 x 50cm3 Beaker
● 25 x 4cm3 cuvette
2) Procedure
I. Preparing reactant solutions
1) Place a weighing boat on the weighing scale and set the weight to 0.
2) Measure 0.792g of blue dye.
3) Pour it into a 1000cm3 volumetric flask then fill it with distilled water.
4) Stir using a stirring rod until particles are completely dissolved in the solution.
5) Pour 50ml of 5% NaOCl into a 50cm3 beaker.
II. Setting up apparatus
1) Set up a water bath and fill it with about 1000cm3 of water
2) Set the water bath to a specific temperature (30C) and wait until the digital sensor on
the water bath shows that it has reached the specific-aimed temperature.
3) To reach higher temperatures, adjust the settings to heat at (40C, 50C)
4) To reach a lower temperature (10°C) repeat step 2 but add ice along with water to help
cool down the temperature
5) Connect LabQuest2 to Spectrophotometer
6) Caliberate by placing a cuvette with clear water inside the spectrophotometer (When
doing this process, the sides of the cuvette should not be touched as fingerprints may
alter the absorption level)
7) Adjust the wavelength to 635nm then press calc. button to set the absorption to 0.
III. Measuring absorbance through spectrophotometer
1) Extract 2ml of dye solution into a cuvette using a volumetric pipette
2) Extract 1ml of NaOCl solution into cuvette using a volumetric pipette
3) Immediately cover the cuvette with a lid and turn it upside down twice.
4) Place the cuvette inside the spectrophotometer.
5) Start the spectrophotometer
IV. Finding the order of reaction for each reactant
1) Extract 10cm3 of 0.672M bleach solution using a volumetric pippette and then pour
the solution into a 50cm3 beaker
2) Add distilled water into the beaker up to 20cm3 to create 20cm3 of 0.336M bleach
solution
3) Extract 10cm3 of 0.0001M dye solution using a volumetric pipette and pour the
solution into a 50cm3 beaker
4) Add distilled water into the beaker up to 20cm3 to create 20cm3 of 0.00005M dye
solution
5) React 0.336M of bleach solution with 0.0001M of dye solution
6) React 0.672M of bleach solution with 0.00005M of dye solution
7) Follow steps in III to find the difference in absorption when concentration of reactants
are altered.
3) Risk Assessment

Type of Risk Method of Control

 Safety Bleach is a strong chemical substance that can cause irritation or burn human skin.
Even though it is low concetration solution, goggles and a pair of gloves were used
every time I used bleach. Also, blue dye, due to its nature of staining other things,
contaminated clothes and equipments easily which made lab coats essential. Scrap
paper was utilized to prevent the lab bench from being stained from dye. When using
the water bath, tongs were used to avoid direct interaction with heated water.

Ethical: There were no ethical issues to be considered.

Environmental Bleach and dye both are strong substances despite the low concentration in the
solutions. Little amounts can alter substances they come across. Both were disposed in
lab waste container.

Qualitative data
Dye solution had a dark blue color while bleach was colorless with a slightly yellowish tone
and had a strong oder. When bleach was added to the cuvette with dye inside, the bleach
would sink to the bottom and the decolorization would occur from the bottom of the cuvette.
For exact measure of absorbance, cuvette was turned upside down twice quickly between
placed inside the spectrophotometer. All the graphs created from LabQuest showed a plaetau
before decolorization occurred. The plateau differed by the concentration and temperature of
reactants. To maintain a temperature of 10C, ice cubes were added to water bath.
Quantitative Data
Mass of Dye: 0.729g
Volume of 0.672M Bleach solution Extracted for Each Trial: 1.00cm3
Volume of 0.0001M Dye solution Extracted for Each Trial: 2.00cm3
Table 1. Effect of Temperature on Absorbance

Absorbance (AU±0.001)
Temperature
Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 Trial 5 Mean
(°C±0.5)

10.0 1.832 1.821 1.811 1.828 1.821 1.823

20.0 1.817 1.821 1.813 1.821 1.823 1.819

30.0 1.799 1.823 1.821 1.821 1.811 1.815

40.0 1.821 1.807 1.823 1.826 1.821 1.820

50.0 1.802 1.790 1.803 1.813 1.819 1.805

Table 2. Time Taken for Solution to Decolorize from Blue to Colorless

 Time (s±0.1)
Temperature
Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 Trial 5 Mean
(°C±0.5)

10.0 300.0 295.0 290.0 290.0 285.0 292.0

20.0 250.0 245.0 255.0 250.0 245.0 249.0

30.0 170.0 175.0 170.0 165.0 175.0 171.0

40.0 115.0 120.0 120.0 115.0 120.0 118.0

50.0 75.0 80.0 85.0 85.0 75.0 80.0

Sample Calculation
For Trial 1 at 10.0°C, the difference calculated from subtracting the final absorbacen from the
initial absorbance is 1.832AU±0.002AU.
Initial Absorption− Final Absorption
= 1.832 ±0.001 − 0.000 ±0.001
= 1.832 ±0.002
= 1.832AU ± 0.1%
To identify the rate, absorption is divided by the time interval during the decolorization
reaction. The formula for finding the rate of reaction can be expressed as follows.
𝐼𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝐴𝑏𝑠𝑜𝑟𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛−𝐹𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑏𝑠𝑜𝑟𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 = 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒

The unit of absorption of solution is AU. However, the units AU need to be converted to mol
dm -3 in order to calculate the rate of reaction in mol dm-3s-1. To convert the units, absorbance
5 −1 3
is divided by 1. 30 × 10 𝑚𝑜𝑙 𝑑𝑚 · 1𝑐𝑚
1.823±0.1% −5 −3
5 −1 3 −1 = 1. 40 · 10 𝑚𝑜𝑙𝑑𝑚 ± 0. 1%
1.30·10 𝑚𝑜𝑙 𝑑𝑚 𝑐𝑚 ·1𝑐𝑚

−5 −3
Hence, 1.823±0.002AU of carbon dioxide is equal to 1. 40 · 10 𝑚𝑜𝑙𝑑𝑚 ± 0. 1%. Now
that the units are converted, we can divide the difference in initial and final absorption by the
difference in time, which is 300.0s±0.2s, and derive the rate of reaction.
300. 0𝑠 ± 0. 1𝑠 − 0. 0𝑠 ± 0. 1𝑠 = 300. 0𝑠 ± 0. 2𝑠
300. 0𝑠 ± 0. 2𝑠 = 300. 0𝑠 ± 0. 07%
−5 −3
1.40·10 𝑚𝑜𝑙𝑑𝑚 ±0.1% −8 −3 −1
300.0𝑠±0.07%
= 4. 67 × 10 𝑚𝑜𝑙𝑑𝑚 𝑠 ± 0. 17%
Then we can convert the percentage uncertainty to absolute uncertainty, and the rate of
−8 −11 −3 −1
reaction for Trial 1 at 10°C is 4. 67 × 10 ± 7. 9 × 10 𝑚𝑜𝑙𝑑𝑚 𝑠
Table 3. The Effect of Temperature on Initial Rate of Reaction

Rate of Reaction (moldm-3s-1)

Temperatu Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 Trial 5 Mean Standard

re (°C±0.5) Deviation

10 4.67×10-8± 4.74×10-8± 4.83×10-8± 4.83×10-8± 4.91×10-8± 4.80×10-8± 9.26×10-10

7.9×10-11 8.1×10-11 8.2×10-11 8.2×10-11 8.4×10-11 8.2×10-11

20 5.60×10-8± 5.71×10-8± 5.49×10-8± 5.6×10-8±7 5.71×10-8± 5.62×10-8± 3.18×10-10

1.0×10-10 1.0×10-10 9.9×10-11 1.0×10-10 1.0×10-10 1.0×10-10

30 8.26×10-8± 8.00×10-8± 8.26×10-8± 8.48×10-8± 8.00×10-8± 8.20×10-8± 2.0×10-10

1.6×10-10 1.6×10-10 1.6×10-10 1.7×10-10 1.6×10-10 1.6×10-10

40 1.22×10-7± 1.17×10-7± 1.17×10-7± 1.22×10-7± 1.17×10-7± 1.19×10-7± 2.73×10-9

3.7×10-10 3.5×10-10 3.5×10-10 3.7×10-10 3.5×10-10 3.6×10-10

50 1.87×10-7± 1.75×10-7± 1.65×10-7± 1.65×10-7± 1.87×10-7± 1.76×10-7± 1.10×10-8

7.5×10-10 7.0×10-10 4.9×10-10 4.9×10-10 7.5×10-10 6.4×10-10

Table 3 shows the rate of reaction of bleach and dye reaction at different temperatures. The
final dependent variable of this experiment, rate constant (k) can be found by investigating
the order of reactants.The rate expression of the reaction is,
rate = k[C37H34N2O9S3•2Na]a[NaOCl]b
where a is the unknown order of blue dye and b is the unknown order with respect to NaOCl .
In order to find the values of a and b, concentration of both blue due and NaOCl was halved.
10cm3 of 0.672M NaOCl solution was diluted by adding 10cm3 of distilled water. Also,
10cm3 of 0.0001M solution was diluted by adding 10cm3 of distiled water. Specific steps are
explained in Prodevure IV. Then, at 20C, which was the room temperature, 0.336M NaOCl
solution and 0.0001M dye solution was reacted and 0.672M NaOCl solution and 0.00005M
dye solution was reacted seperatively. The rate of reaction of each reaction is shown in Table
4 alongwith the mean rate of reaction at 20.0°C when 0.672M NaOCl and 0.0001M dye
solution reacte, which is found in Table 3.
Table 4. Rate of Reaction of Halved Concentration Reactants at 20.0°C±0.5°C
Trial [C37H34N2O9S3•2Na] (mol [NaOCl] (mol dm-3) Rate of Reaction
-3
dm ) (mol dm-3 s-1)

1 0.0001 0.672 5.62×10-8

2 0.0001 0.336 2.76×10-8

3 0.00005 0.672 2.88×10-8

In order to find the order of reaction with respect to NaOCl, Trial 1 and 2 were compared.
Trial 1 and 3 were compared to identify order of dye. The formula utilized when calculating
rhe order of reaction is
[𝐴1] 𝑚
( )
[𝐴2]
= ( 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒1
𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒2 )
[A1] and [A2] refers to two different concentrations of the same reactnat and rate1 and rate2
refer to the rate of reaction at its respective concentrations. The exponent, m being the order
of the reactant.

C37H34N2O9S3•2Na NaOCl

0.0001 𝑚 0.672 𝑛
( 0.00005 ) = ( 5.62×10−8
2.88×10−8 ) ( 0.336 ) =( 5.62×10−8
2.76×10−8 )
𝑚 𝑛
2 =1.95 2 =2.08
𝑚 =1 𝑛 =1

Therefore, the order of both dye and bleach is 1 and the overall order of the reaction is 2. The
rate expression for the decolorization reaction between FCF dye and bleach can be expressed
as: rate = k[C37H34N2O9S3•2Na][NaOCl]
Sample Calculation for Finding Rate Constant Now that we have identified the order of
reaction, rate constant of the reaction in different temperature can also be identified.The
concentrations of each reactant and the mean value of the rate of reaction obtained from
different temperature should be utilized. At 20.0°C, the mean rate is 5.62×10-8moldm-3s-1
(shown in Table 3), the concentration of dye and bleach are 0.0001M and 0.672M
respectively.
rate=5.62×10-8±1.0×10-10=5.62×10-8±0.18%
rate = k[C37H34N2O9S3•2Na][NaOCl]
5.62×10-8±0.18% = k[0.0001][0.672]
k =8.36×10-4 ± 0.18%
Therfore, the rate constant at 20.0°C is 8.36×10-4 ± 0.18% mol-1dm3s-1
Table 6. Effect of Temperature on Rate Constant (k)
Temperature 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0
(°C±0.5)

Rate Constant 7.14×10-4±1.21× 8.36×10-4±1.50× 1.22×10-3±2.44× 1.77×10-3±5.31× 2.62×10-3±1.04×

-2 6 -1 -6 -6 -6 -6
(mol dm s ) 10 10 10 10 10-5

Standard 1.38×10-5 4.73×10-6 2.98×10-6 4.06×10-5 1.64×10-4

Deviation

Conslusion
To determine the rate constant of decolorization reaction between dye and bleach, the rate of
reaction and order of reaction was taken into consideration. The rate of reaction of the
decolorization was found by measuring the change absorption over time using a
spectrophotometer. Reaction was undertaken at 5 different temperatures and the time that
each trial took to reach absorbance of 0 was recorded. The initial absorption of solution of
each trial at different temperatures was then divided by the recorded time respectively. This
led to finding the order of reaction which completed the rate expression of the reaction. In
order to find the order, concentration of each reactant was halved. The experiment indicated
that the order of both dye and NaOCl is 1.

As hypothesized, there was a direct positive relationship between temperature and the rate of
reaction. Increase in temperature leads to higher kinetic energy of the reactant particles, thus
more frequent collision. Hence, when temperature increases, there is an increase in reaction
rate. This can be observed from Table 3 where the mean rate of reaction on each respective
temperature increases as there is an increase in temperature. Figure 2 represents the line of
best fit of the values of which the R2 value is 0.952, indicating that accumulated data is close
to the trendline. The results are reliable since the trendline can predict the relationship
between temperature and rate of reaction up to 95.2%. Also, the error bars that were created
based on the standard deviation between the five trials had very small values. In Figure 2,
except for the error bar at 50C, the other error bars are hardly visible which suggests that the
experiment was overall not subjected to excessive random errors.

The rate constant and temperature also exhibited a positive linear relationship which is
expressed in Figure 3. The line of best fit in Figure 3 has the R2 value of 0.9227, which
suggests that the data gained from the experiments aligned closely to the trendline. It can be
said that trendline shows reliability in considering the relationship between rate constant and
temperature. The error bars of Figure 3 also used the standard deviation. Similar to Figure 2,
the error bars were very small and it had the biggest error bar at 50C. Figure 3 and Figure 4
aligns with the hypothesis that rate constant and rate of reaction have a positive linear
relationship with temperature. The results suggest that there also a direct relationship between
rate constant and the rate of reaction. If we look at the rate expression, we can notice that the
rate constant and concentration directly impact the rate of the reaction.

Evaluation
One significant limitation was using the Vernier spectrophotometer. It mainly had 2 problems.
The first was that there were only 4 possible options of wavelength emitted from the
spectrophotometer. When I was initially planning this experiment, the wavelength was
supposed to be chosen after preliminary experiment to find which wavelength had highest
absorption. Since there was a limited range and choice of wavelengths and because blue dye
absorbs red, which has the lowest frequency, I only had to choice to conduct the experiment
on 635nm which was the lowest frequency option. Another problem was that the
spectrophotometer was not delicate enough to show values smaller than 0.001. After I took
out a cuvette after the experiment since it had reached 0 absorption, there was still a bluish
hue left inside which indicated that the reaction was not finished and there were still dye
particles left in the cuvette. To fix this limitation, next time when I conduct the same or
similar experiment, I would use a more sophisticated spectrohotometer.

However, despite the limitations, my experiment have some considerable strengths that
resulted in a reliable conclusion. The 5 trials that were proceeded under one temperatures
showed low standard deviation overall. Also, the R2 value of both Figure 2 and 3 had high
values indicating high accuracy of calcuated data. It suggests that there is a high and strong
correlation between temperature and rate of reaction as well as temperature and rate constant.
Also, by using a water bath, a stable and accurate temperature of solution was maintained
throughout the reaction.