LITERATURE REVIEW

Chemical reaction occurs when a known number of molecules of one or more species have lost
their identity and assumed a new form by a change in the kind or number of atoms in the
compound and by a change in structure or configuration of these atoms. With respect to this
classical approach to chemical change, it is thus assumed that the total mass is neither created
nor destroyed when a chemical reaction takes place. Chemical kinetics is the part of physical
chemistry that studies reaction rates. The reaction rate for a reactant or product in a particular
reaction is usually defined as how fast a reaction takes place

Rate of reaction is defined as the change in the number of molecules of reacting species per unit
volume per unit time. It is also defined to be proportional to the concentration of reacting
species raised to a certain power called the order of reaction. It is usually taken as the rate at
which the reactant disappear or the rate at which the product is formed.

The rate constant, K quantifies the speed of a chemical reaction. Consider a chemical reaction
where substance A and B are reacting to produce C, then, the reaction rate has the form:

A+B C

r = K [A]m [B]n

Where,

r: rate of reaction

K: rate constant (which depends on temperature

m and n: Order of reaction

Rate constant is the rate of reaction when the concentration of each reaction is taken as unity. It
is a measure of the rate of reaction, therefore, the greater the value of the rate constant, the faster
the reaction. Each reaction has a definite value of the rate constant at a particular temperature
and the value of the rate constant for the same reaction changes with temperature. Moreover, the
values of the rate constant do not depend upon the concentration of reaction but depend upon
order of reaction.
The reaction chosen for this experiment is the saponification of ethyl acetate (EtOAc) with dilute
sodium hydroxide (NaOH).

NaOH + EtOAc NaOAc + EtOH

This saponification reaction is a second-order, irreversible reaction which is represented as

follows:

CH3CO2C2H5 + NaOH C2H5CO2Na + CH3OH

Ikhazuangbe et al., 2015.AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL

RESEARCH: Reaction rate and rate constant of the hydrolysis of ethyl acetate with sodium
hydroxide [Online]. Available from: http://www.scihub.org/AJSIR/PDF/2015/1/AJSIR-6-1-1-
4.pdf [Accessed 12 October 2016].

ANON., (n.d). The Kinetics of the Saponification of Ethylacetate [Online]. Available from:
http://www.colby.edu/chemistry/PChem/lab/KineticsEster.pdf [Accessed 12 October 2016].

ANON., (n.d). Batch Reactor Kinetics [Online]. Available from:

https://www.cpp.edu/~tknguyen/che435/Notes/P5-kinetic.pdf [Accessed 12 October 2016].