A 4L container holds 19 mol and 20 mol of gasses A and B, respectively. Groups of four of molecules of gas B bind to three molecule of gas A and the reaction changes the temperature from 210oK to 120oK. How much does the pressure change?

1 Answer
Apr 28, 2018

The pressure drops from 168 atm to 22.2 atm.

Explanation:

I'll answer a question for a fellow Wisconsinite!

The trickiest part of this problem is determining the change in the number of moles from the reaction.

Let

nA0 = the initial number of moles of gas A = 19.

nB0 = the initial number of moles of gas B = 20.

n0 = the total number of moles of gas present before the reaction = 19 + 20 = 39.

We are given all the information we need to calculate the initial pressure if we make the assumption that gasses A and B are ideal. (In reality this is not often the case at 120K!)

P0=n0RT0V0=39(0.082057)(210)4168 atm

When the two types of gasses react, they form a new gas C. The problem states that the reaction goes as follows:

3A+4BC

We know that the limiting reagent here is gas B since we require 33% more B than A for the reaction yet we only have about 5% more B than A before the reaction. We will assume that this reaction goes to completion so that there is no gas B after the reaction.

Let

x = the number of moles of gas B that reacts = 20.

nA = the number of moles of A left after the reaction.

nB = the number of moles of B left after the reaction = 0.

nC = the number of moles of C formed by the reaction.

Because of the reaction stoichiometry

nA=nA0(34)x=19(34)20=4 moles of gas A.

nC=x4=204=5 moles of gas C

The total number of moles of gas after the reaction, n, is

n=nA+nB+nC=4+0+5=9 moles of gas.

Again assuming the ideal gas law holds we can calculate the pressure after the reaction.

P=nRTV=9(0.082057)(120)422.2 atm