3.

1-IDEAL AND REAL GASES

An ideal gas is one that follows the gas laws at all conditions of temperature and pressure. To do
so the gas would need to completely abide by the kinetic molecular theory. The gas particles
would need to occupy zero volume and they would need to exhibit no attractive forces toward
each other.
Since neither of those conditions can be true there is no such thing as an ideal gas. A real gas is a
gas that does not obey gas laws at all standard pressure and temperature conditions. When the gas
become massive and have volume it deviates from its ideal behaviour. Real gases have velocity,
volume and mass. When they are cooled to their boiling point they liquefy. When compared to
the total volume of gas the volume occupied by gas is not negligible.

Ideal Gas Real Gas

Describes the behaviour of theoretical gas Describes the behaviour of actually

Occurring gases in the universe.

n2
PV= nRT ( { }) (
P+a
V2
Vm−b )=nRT

No intermolecular attraction forces Have intermolecular attraction forces

When a gas is put under high pressure, its molecules are forced closer together as the
empty space between the particles is diminished. A decrease in the empty space means
that assumption that the volume of particles themselves is negligible is less valid. When a
gas is cooled the decrease in kinetic energy of particles causes them to slow down if
particles are moving at slower speeds the attractive forces between them are more
prominent. Another way to view it is that continued cooling of gas will eventually turn it
into a liquid and a liquid is certainly not an ideal gas anymore. A real gas deviates from
ideal gas at low temperatures and high pressures. Gases are most ideal at high
temperature and low pressure.
 Figure 3.1.1 Real gases deviate from ideal gas at high pressures and low
temperatures.

This graph of PV/RT plotted against pressure for 1 mole of a gas at three different
temperatures- 200K, 500K, 1000K. An ideal gas would have a value of 1 for that ratio at
all temperatures and pressures and the graph would simply be a horizontal line. As can be
seen deviations from ideal gas occur. As the pressure begins to rise the attractive forces
cause the volume of the gas to be less than expected and the value of PV/RT drops under
1. You can see that the magnitude of deviations from ideality is greatest for the gas at
200K and least for the gas at 1000K.

The ideality of a gas also depends on the strength and type of intermolecular attractive
forces that exist between the particles. Gases whose attractive forces are weak are more
ideal than those with strong attractive forces. At the same temperature and pressure neon
is more ideal than water vapours because neon atoms are only attracted by weak
dispersion forces, while water vapors molecules are attracted by relatively stronger
hydrogen bonds. Helium is a more ideal gas than neon because its smaller number of
electrons means that helium’s dispersion forces are even weaker than those of neon.