The redox reaction between dioxovanadium(V)
and oxalate is proposed
as a suitable system to analyze the kinetics of a two-step reaction
mechanism using UV–vis spectroscopy. First, the spectra of
dioxovanadium(V) and its reduced counterpart oxovanadium(IV) are compared
and explained using the crystal field theory. The change in absorbance
can be used to determine the reaction order and rate equation by the
method of initial rates. Next, the students are introduced to the
Guggenheim time-lag method to calculate the apparent rate constant.
By performing the experiment
at different temperatures, ranging from 20 to 50 °C, an Arrhenius
plot can be constructed to obtain the activation energy for this redox
reaction.