The speed at which chemical reactions proceed, is known as the
rate of reaction. Different reactions proceed at different speeds. While some reactions are extremely slow, there are other reactions which take place in a matter of few seconds.
There are
several factors which affect the rate of chemical reactions:
- concentration
of the reactants
- temperature
- total
surface area of solid reactants
- presence
of catalysts
- pressure, if the reactants are
gases
Here, we will be discussing the total surface area factor.
We will refer to the images below to understand more on total surface area. (
I got these images from Google Images).
The total surface area is made up of
three pairs of sides for a total of six sides.
Now, see how the total surface area change when the size change.
From the images above, we can conclude that if we breaks a 1m X 1m cube into 4 pieces, the surface area will increase from 6 m2 to 12 m2. And If we breaks it into 18 pieces, the surface area increase to 18 m2.
In a solid-liquid mixture, the particle size of the solid reactant plays
an important role. The greater the surface area, the higher the rate of
a chemical reaction. For example: Smaller pieces of meat cook faster than the bigger pieces.
