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aqa alevel equillbria question help!!!

hello,

i would appreciate any help on this question! :smile:

2A + B 3C + D
Justify the statement that adding more water to the equilibrium mixture will lower the amount of A in the mixture

the mark scheme says:
1 -- (All) conc fall: (ignore dilution)
OR Kc = mole ratio × 1/V
1 -- Equm moves to side with more moles
OR If vol increases, mole ratio must increase
1 -- To oppose the decrease in conc
OR To keep Kc constant

i understand that all of the concentrations will decrease, but i was stuck on how to get the 2 last points.

i learnt that//its a 'rule' in my head that for a change in concentration, you should not look at it in terms of number of moles, but simply on individual reactants or products, if that makes sense. I would only include moles in my answer if i was talking about pressure.

for example: a random q about conc - an increase in conc of product Q means the eqm shifts to the left, to decrease the conc of Q
and for pressure - an increase in pressure means the eqm will shift to the side with the least number of moles to oppose the change.

i dont understand how to apporach/ think about it when a change of conc happens to the whole thing, is what im trying to say.

thank you!! sorry if this was confusing......
Original post by studybug531
hello,

i would appreciate any help on this question! :smile:

2A + B 3C + D
Justify the statement that adding more water to the equilibrium mixture will lower the amount of A in the mixture

the mark scheme says:
1 -- (All) conc fall: (ignore dilution)
OR Kc = mole ratio × 1/V
1 -- Equm moves to side with more moles
OR If vol increases, mole ratio must increase
1 -- To oppose the decrease in conc
OR To keep Kc constant

i understand that all of the concentrations will decrease, but i was stuck on how to get the 2 last points.

i learnt that//its a 'rule' in my head that for a change in concentration, you should not look at it in terms of number of moles, but simply on individual reactants or products, if that makes sense. I would only include moles in my answer if i was talking about pressure.

for example: a random q about conc - an increase in conc of product Q means the eqm shifts to the left, to decrease the conc of Q
and for pressure - an increase in pressure means the eqm will shift to the side with the least number of moles to oppose the change.

i dont understand how to apporach/ think about it when a change of conc happens to the whole thing, is what im trying to say.

thank you!! sorry if this was confusing......

My approach would be to think about it in terms of a Kc expression.

Can you start by writing a Kc expression for this particular reaction?

Let’s say for argument’s sake that all concentrations are 1.00 mol dm^-3 at equilibrium. Try calculating the value of Kc.

Let’s also say for argument’s sake that all concentrations are 0.10 mol dm^-3 immediately after dilution. Try calculating the apparent value of Kc.

Since Kc is only affected by the temperature, the system will shift so that the equilibrium is restored and so the apparent value of Kc must either increase or decrease back to the original value of Kc.

Is the apparent value of Kc you calculated more or less than the actual value and so, to restore the equilibrium by maintaining Kc, would the system have to shift to favour the products or reactants?

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