UNIT 7 EQUILIBRIUM

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. To identify equilibrium involved in physical & chemical processes
2. To state the law of equilibrium
3. To write expressions for equilibrium constants

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 Equilibrium means balancing of opposing processes.

 Equilibrium can be established for both physical processes &

chemical reactions.

Equilibrium in Physical process

eg:- Liquid evaporates in

aclosed container

 Molecules with high kinetic

energy escape the liquid surface into the vapour phase.
 Many liquid molecules vapourise and then return into the liquid phase on
condensation.
 A balance is set up between the number of molecules leaving the liquid and
the number returning to liquid from the vapour phase.

 At this stage the system has reached Equilibrium state.

 It is a dynamic equilibrium
 At equilibrium,rate of evaporation is equal to the rate of condensation.
 It can be represented by

 The double half arrows indicate that the processes in both the
directions are going on simultaneously.

 The mixture of reactants and products in the equilibrium state is

called an Equilibrium mixture.
 EQUILIBRIUM IN CHEMICAL PROCESSES

 Consider a reversible reaction,

• As reaction proceeds, depletion of the reactants A and B

• accumulation of the products C and D

• decrease in the rate of forward reaction

• increase in the rate of the backward reaction,

Eventually, the two reactions occur at the same rate and the system reaches a
state of equilibrium.

Concentrations in an equilibrium mixture are related by the following equation

where Kc is equilibrium constant and [A], [B],[C] and [D] are

concentrations of the reactants & products.

This is also known as Equilibrium constant expression or Law of mass action

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For the reaction

Here a,b,c,d are no:of moles of reactants and products.

Then Kc will be
Equilibrium Law or Law of Chemical Equilibrium.

At a given temperature, the product of concentrations of the reaction products

raised to the respective stoichiometric coefficient in the balanced chemical
equation divided by the product of concentrations of the reactants raised to
their individual stoichiometric coefficients has a constant value. This is known
as the Equilibrium Law or Law of Chemical Equilibrium.

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Home work

Write the Equilibrium constant expression for the following reaction.

H2(g) + I2(g) ------> 2HI(g)

Answer:-

Kc = [HI]2

[H2] [I2]

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