GAS LAWS

The Gas Laws:

• Boyle’s Law
• Gay-Lussac’s Law
• Charles’ Law
• Avogadro’s Law
• Ideal Gas and Ideal Gas Equation
• Combined Gas Law
• Dalton’s Law
 A. Boyle’s Law
• The pressure of a
fixed amount of gas
is inversely
proportional to its
Robert Boyle
volume at constant
(1627-1691) temperature.
Irish Scientist
Boyle’s Law: 𝑷𝟏 𝑽𝟏 = 𝑷𝟐 𝑽𝟐
1. A 20.0 L gas kept in a movable piston has
an initial pressure of 1.5 atm at 25°C. If the
piston is allowed to expand isothermally
(i.e. at constant temperature) to 45.0 L,
what will be the resulting pressure of the
gas?
Boyle’s Law: 𝑃1 𝑉1 = 𝑃2 𝑉2
2. An air compressor contains 11.5 L of gas
at 1.10 atm. If the pressure inside the
compressor has to be increased to 4.3 atm
without changing its temperature, what
should be the final volume setting?
 B. Gay-Lussac’s Law
• The pressure of a fixed
amount of gas is directly
proportional to its
absolute temperature at
a constant volume.
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac
(1778-1850)
French chemist and physicist
 𝑷𝟏 𝑷𝟐
Gay-Lussac’s Law: =
𝑻𝟏 𝑻𝟐
K = ℃ + 273
5
℃= ℉ − 32
9
 𝑷𝟏 𝑷𝟐
Gay-Lussac’s Law: =
𝑻𝟏 𝑻𝟐
1. A 50.0 L tank of helium gas placed
outside a laboratory has a pressure of
5.0 atm at 25℃. How much will the
pressure increase at noon time when
the temperature reaches 32℃?
 𝑷𝟏 𝑷𝟐
Gay-Lussac’s Law: =
𝑻𝟏 𝑻𝟐
2. A confined amount of gas at
10℃ has a pressure of 2.5 atm.
What is its new pressure if the
temperature is increased to 20℃?
 C. Charles’ Law
• Together with Gay-Lussac
discovered the volume-
temperature relationship in an
effort to improve the design of
hot air balloons.
• The volume of a gas is directly
proportional to its absolute
Jacques Charles
(1746-1823) temperature at a constant
French scientist pressure.
 𝑽𝟏 𝑽𝟐
Charles’ Law: =
𝑻𝟏 𝑻𝟐
• T is expressed in Kelvin.
1. Consider a 25.0 L gas in a container
initially at 25℃ and 1 atm. If this gas is
heated to 80℃, what will happen to
its volume under constant pressure?
 𝑽𝟏 𝑽𝟐
Charles’ Law: =
𝑻𝟏 𝑻𝟐
2. The volume of a gas is 250 mL at
720 torr and 25℃. If the pressure
is held constant and the
temperature is raised to 100℃,
what will be its new volume?
 D. Avogadro’s Law
• The volume of a gas is
directly proportional to the
number of particles at the
same pressure and absolute
temperature regardless of
the nature of gas.
• Under STP, 1 mole of any
Amedeo Avogadro gas will occupy the same
(1776-1856)
Italian scientist
volume.
 𝑽𝟏 𝑽𝟐
Avogadro’s Law : =
𝒏𝟏 𝒏𝟐

•𝑛 = no. of moles of the gas

𝑚
•𝑛 =
𝑀𝑀
 𝑽𝟏 𝑽𝟐
Avogadro’s Law : =
𝒏𝟏 𝒏𝟐
1. A canister of butane gas (𝐶4 𝐻10 , MM=58.12
g/mol) used for portable cooking is available in a
store in two sizes, 750 mL and 2.0 L. The 750 mL
canister contains 85g of 𝐶4 𝐻10 with a pressure of 48
atm at 28℃. How many grams of 𝐶4 𝐻10 are present
in the bigger canister under the same conditions of
pressure and temperature?
Given:
750 mL canister 2.0 L canister
𝑚1 85 g 𝑚2 ?
𝑃1 48 atm 𝑃2 48 atm
𝑇1 28℃ 𝑇2 28℃
𝑉1 750 mL 𝑉2 2.0 L
• To solve this, calculate first the number of
moles of 𝐶4 𝐻10 from the given mass.
• Then manipulate the equation for Avogadro’s
Law to get the no. of moles of 𝐶4 𝐻10 present in
the bigger canister.
• Finally, compute for the mass of 𝐶4 𝐻10 in the
second canister.
 𝑽𝟏 𝑽𝟐
Avogadro’s Law : =
𝒏𝟏 𝒏𝟐
2. In a sample of gas, 50.0 g of oxygen gas
(𝑂2 )take up 48 L of volume. Keeping the
pressure constant, the amount of gas is
changed until the volume is 79 L. How
many grams of gas are now in the
container?
E. Ideal Gas and Ideal Gas Equation
• First stated in 1834 by
Benoît Paul Émile
Clapeyron(1799-1864), a
French engineer and
physicist and one of the
founders of
Thermodynamics.
Ideal Gas Law
• Also called general gas equation, is the
equation of state of a hypothetical ideal
gas.
• Ideal gas – is a theoretical gas which
satisfies the assumptions of the kinetic
molecular theory.
Ideal Gas Law: PV=nRt
• T is expressed in Kelvin.
𝑲 = ℃ + 273
℃ = 𝐾 − 273
R - ideal gas constant.
𝟎.𝟎𝟖𝟐𝟏 𝑳∙𝒂𝒕𝒎 62.4 𝐿∙𝑚𝑚𝐻𝑔 8.31 𝐿∙𝑘𝑃𝑎
R= ;R= ;R=
𝑲∙𝒎𝒐𝒍 𝐾∙𝑚𝑜𝑙 𝐾∙𝑚𝑜𝑙
Ideal Gas Law: PV=nRt
1. A 2.3 moles of Helium gas is
at a pressure of 1.70 atm, and
the temperature is 41℃. What
is the volume of the gas?
Given:
• Check the units in R.
P = 1.70 atm
• Leave R till the end.
V=?
• For the final answer,
n = 2.3 moles
look for the fewest
T = 41℃ → 314 K significant digit then
0.0821 𝐿∙𝑎𝑡𝑚 round off the
R=
𝐾∙𝑚𝑜𝑙
answer.
What if R is at the bottom of the fraction?

2. At a certain temperature, 3.24

moles of 𝐶𝑂2 gas at 2.15 atm take
up a volume of 35.28 L. What is the
temperature in Celcius?
Given:
• Check the units in R.
P = 2.15 atm
• Leave R till the end.
V = 35.28 L
• For the final answer,
n = 3.24 moles
look for the fewest
T=? significant digit then
0.0821 𝐿∙𝑎𝑡𝑚 round off the
R=
𝐾∙𝑚𝑜𝑙
answer.
 F. Combined Gas Law
• The gas laws of Boyle, Charles and Gay-
Lussac can be combined into a single
equation to examine the behavior of a
constant amount of gas when the three
gas conditions are changed.
Combined Gas Law
𝑷𝟏 𝑽𝟏 𝑷𝟐 𝑽𝟐
=
𝑻𝟏 𝑻𝟐
 𝑷𝟏 𝑽𝟏 𝑷𝟐 𝑽𝟐
Combined Gas Law: =
𝑻𝟏 𝑻𝟐
1. A gas sample held in a 1.0 L piston at 305 K
has a pressure of 0.75 atm. The piston was
heated to 387 K at the same time the volume
was expanded to 1.5 L. Will the pressure
decrease or increase?
 𝑷 𝟏 𝑽𝟏 𝑷 𝟐 𝑽𝟐
Combined Gas Law: =
𝑻𝟏 𝑻𝟐
2. A 5.0 L balloon has a pressure of 1.0 atm at
sea level, where the temperature is 28℃. The
balloon was let loose and ascended to a height
in the atmosphere where the temperature is
11℃. What will be the volume of the balloon if
the atmospheric pressure at the new altitude is
0.65 atm?
G. Dalton’s Law of Partial Pressure
• for a mixture of gases, the pressure that each gas
would have on its own, added together, equals the
total pressure.
Example:
Gas A – 1 atm
Gas B – 2 atm
𝑷𝑻𝒐𝒕𝒂𝒍 = 𝑷𝒂 + 𝑷𝒃 + 𝑷𝒄 …
𝑹𝑻
𝑷𝑻𝒐𝒕𝒂𝒍 = (𝒏𝒂 + 𝒏𝒃 + 𝒏𝒄 )
𝑽
 Mole Fraction and Partial Pressure
• To moles of part over moles of whole.
𝒏𝒂
𝒙𝒂 =
𝒏𝒕𝒐𝒕𝒂𝒍
• So partial pressure is mole fraction
multiplied by the total pressure:
𝑷𝒂 = 𝒙 𝒂 𝑷𝒕
Total Pressure
= 10 units
𝒙:
𝑷𝒑𝒊:
•𝑃𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 is equal to each
individual gas’ partial
pressure.
Sample Problems:
1. Air contains oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide
and trace amounts of other gases. What is the
partial pressure of oxygen (𝑃𝑂 ) at 101.30 kPa
of the pressure if the partial pressures of
nitrogen, carbon dioxide and other gases are
79.1 kPa, 0.040 kPa and 0.94 kPa?
2. Determine the total pressure of a gas
mixture that contains oxygen, nitrogen and
helium. The partial pressures are 𝑃𝑂 =
0.197 𝑎𝑡𝑚, 𝑃𝑁 = 0.461 𝑎𝑡𝑚 and 𝑃𝐻𝑒 =
0. 264 𝑎𝑡𝑚.
3. A gas mixture containing oxygen and
nitrogen has a total pressure of 600 mmHg. If
the mixture is 80% nitrogen, what is 𝑃𝑂 ?