Hydrolysis of Methyl Acetate in Acidic Media

Hydrolysis of methyl acetate in a dilute aqueous solution at pH 7 follows the first reaction order. Table 4.1 contains experimental reagent concentrations at different moments of time for seven experiments. Each series was measured under constant temperature. Determine the rate constant for each experiment and, based on the temperature-rate constant relationship, find the activation energy and pre-exponential factor. 

This reaction is of the first order consequently, we can use the following kinetic equation  

The expression is linearizable in semi-logarithmic coordinates, InC(t). The rate constant is determined from the slope of the regression line. The given operation is 

We have to mention that the starting data set (Table 4.1) is rather large therefore, it was prepared first as an Excel table and loaded into Mathcad environment using dynamic data exchange tools (Fig. 4.1 shows only a part of the 

The obtained vector is used in the subsequent calculations, that are based on a linear form of the Arrhenius equation  

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