What is the effect of temperature on the equilibrium constant for an exothermic reaction?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
What is the effect of temperature on the equilibrium constant for an exothermic reaction?
Increases with temperature
Decreases with temperature
Remains constant
Depends on the concentration
For exothermic reactions, increasing the temperature shifts the equilibrium to the left, thus decreasing the equilibrium constant.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
1 item
Q
Q: What is the effect of temperature on the equilibrium constant for an exothermic reaction?
Solution: For exothermic reactions, increasing the temperature shifts the equilibrium to the left, thus decreasing the equilibrium constant.
Steps: 7
Step 1: Understand what an exothermic reaction is. It is a reaction that releases heat.
Step 2: Know that the equilibrium constant (K) is a number that tells us the ratio of products to reactants at equilibrium.
Step 3: Remember Le Chatelier's Principle, which states that if you change the conditions of a system at equilibrium, the system will adjust to counteract that change.
Step 4: When you increase the temperature of an exothermic reaction, you are adding heat to the system.
Step 5: The system will try to reduce the added heat by shifting the equilibrium to the left, favoring the reactants.
Step 6: As the equilibrium shifts to the left, the concentration of products decreases and the concentration of reactants increases.
Step 7: Since the equilibrium constant (K) is based on the concentrations of products and reactants, a shift to the left means K will decrease.
