What is the effect of decreasing the volume of a gaseous reaction mixture at equilibrium?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
What is the effect of decreasing the volume of a gaseous reaction mixture at equilibrium?
Shifts to the side with more moles of gas
Shifts to the side with fewer moles of gas
No effect
Increases the temperature
Decreasing the volume increases the pressure, and according to Le Chatelier's Principle, the equilibrium will shift to the side with fewer moles of gas to counteract the change.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
1 item
Q
Q: What is the effect of decreasing the volume of a gaseous reaction mixture at equilibrium?
Solution: Decreasing the volume increases the pressure, and according to Le Chatelier's Principle, the equilibrium will shift to the side with fewer moles of gas to counteract the change.
Steps: 7
Step 1: Understand that a gaseous reaction mixture is a mixture of gases that are reacting with each other.
Step 2: Know that equilibrium is a state where the forward and reverse reactions occur at the same rate, so the concentrations of reactants and products remain constant.
Step 3: Recognize that decreasing the volume of the reaction mixture means that the gas molecules are compressed into a smaller space.
Step 4: Understand that when the volume decreases, the pressure of the gas increases because the same number of gas molecules is now in a smaller space.
Step 5: Learn about Le Chatelier's Principle, which states that if a system at equilibrium is disturbed, it will shift to counteract the disturbance.
Step 6: Apply Le Chatelier's Principle: when the pressure increases (due to decreased volume), the equilibrium will shift to the side of the reaction that has fewer moles of gas.
Step 7: Conclude that by decreasing the volume, the equilibrium shifts to favor the side with fewer gas molecules to reduce the pressure increase.
