Do the following reactions favor reactants or products at equilibrium? Give relative concentrations at equilibrium.

Fe2O3(s) + 3 CO(g) ⇌ 2 Fe(s) + 3 CO2(g) K (at 727 °C) = 24.2

Question

Do the following reactions favor reactants or products at equilibrium? Give relative concentrations at equilibrium.

Fe2O3(s) + 3 CO(g) ⇌ 2 Fe(s) + 3 CO2(g) K (at 727 °C) = 24.2

Accepted Answer

Welcome back, everyone consider the following equilibrium where our equilibrium constant is equal to 2.68 times 10 to the negative third power at 800 degrees Celsius. We have solid calcium carbonate in equilibrium with calcium oxide, solid and carbon dioxide gas were asked if the formation of products is favored at equilibrium. And what is, or are the relative concentrations of the species involved at equilibrium? Notice that our equilibrium constant is to a power of 10 to the negative third power. And our equilibrium constant KC, we can say based on this power is less than one. And therefore, this tells us that our formation of reactant is going to be favored at equilibrium. Let's recall that our equilibrium constant K describes our concentration of products divided by our concentration of reactant. And recall that our equilibrium constant only consists of acquis or gaseous species only. So we won't take into account solids or liquids since they should be constant over the course of our reaction. So in this case, based on our given equilibrium, we would write out that our equilibrium constant 2. times 10 to the negative third power Is equal to our concentration of our only gaseous reactant, which is CO2. And this would be our relative concentration of our carbon dioxide species involved at equilibrium. So this is our first answer. And we already said that the formation of our reactant will be favored at equilibrium because our given equilibrium constant of 22.68 times 10 to the negative third power is less than one. And so therefore, we would say that no, the formation of products is not favored at equilibrium because instead we have the formation of reactant favored at equilibrium based on our equilibrium constant being less than one. So our final answers will correspond to choice c in the multiple choice to complete this example. I hope this made sense and let us know if you have any questions.

Do the following reactions favor reactants or products at equilibrium? Give relative concentrations at equilibrium. Fe2O3(s) + 3 CO(g) ⇌ 2 Fe(s) + 3 CO2(g) K (at 727 °C) = 24.2

Verified Solution

Key Concepts

Chemical Equilibrium

Equilibrium Constant (K)

Le Chatelier's Principle