Chem IA topic question ( rate of reaction and catalysts)

[stealthyfighter]

hey guys,

I am planning on doing my chem IA on different catalysts impact on the rate of reaction of decomposition of hydrogen peroxide.  I was planning on measuring this rate of reaction with gas pressure ( with gas pressure sensors).  My different catalysts are manganese dioxide, Potassium iodide, catalase, iron dioxide and lead oxide. So 3 transitional metal catalysts, one ionic compound and one organic compound as my catalyst. 

But now I am beginning to have second thoughts on this topic because ultimately I am not using a quantitative value as my IV. I've just chosen 5 different catalysts. But I'm not sure how I would hypothesize which catalyst is better than the other, and when I get my results how I would justify. 

Is me having these types of catalysts as my IV rather than some quantitative value a potentially bad thing or more likely to have a bad impact? Because I dont know how to form my hypothesis and I could not find much research online (quite frankly I dont even know what to look for). So some guidance here would be awesome. :  ) 

so should I try simplifying my topic into perhaps ": varying the concentration of one catalyst and its impact on the rate of reaction of hydrogen peroxide? is that too simple? is my previous topic fine?

I feel like I am going in circles. 

 

[kemistrywaifu]

It's perfectly fine to have qualitative independent variables. One way to compare between catalysts is that at same concentration of reactants and catalyst, which one has a faster rater. I wouldn't call the oxides of manganese, iron, and lead "metal catalysts". They are just metal or metallic oxides. When you hypothesize, you can just refer to literature. If, say, KI is used in all the reaction schemes you find, then you can say that's the best catalyst because everyone uses it. You don't really need hypothesis in IAs. It's mostly just compare what you found experimentally to what you found in published research, ie any hypothesis is grounded in previous work not just what you think is the best. 

[stealthyfighter]

On 10/29/2018 at 1:54 PM, kemistrywaifu said:

It's perfectly fine to have qualitative independent variables. One way to compare between catalysts is that at same concentration of reactants and catalyst, which one has a faster rater. I wouldn't call the oxides of manganese, iron, and lead "metal catalysts". They are just metal or metallic oxides. When you hypothesize, you can just refer to literature. If, say, KI is used in all the reaction schemes you find, then you can say that's the best catalyst because everyone uses it. You don't really need hypothesis in IAs. It's mostly just compare what you found experimentally to what you found in published research, ie any hypothesis is grounded in previous work not just what you think is the best. 

ah thank you so much! that simplifies things allot!