Kinetic study of the reaction between sodium chloroacetate and potassium ethylxanthogenate

The reaction kinetics of the synthesis of sodium ethyl xanthogeneacetate from potassium ethylxanthogenate and sodium chloroacetate in distilled water as the reaction medium at 25, 30, 35 and 40?C, were investigated. The obtained reaction mixture was a complex system which demanded the use of two methods for the kinetic measurements. The reaction was followed using the conductrometric and UV/Vis spectrophotometric method with equimolar initial concentrations of the reactants and under pseudo-first order conditions with respect to one of the reactants. The rate constants of the pseudo-first order and second order reactions were calculated from the data. On the basis of the reaction constants, the activation parameters were calculated and are discussed. .