A chemist is evaluating five candidate reactions as potential one-step syntheses for…

CHEMISTRY · Multi-part · ISC · Chemistry · Chemical Kinetics · Equilibrium

Problem

A chemist is evaluating five candidate reactions as potential one-step syntheses for a desired product P. Each reaction is written so that one mole of P appears on the right-hand side. All reactions are carried out under identical standard conditions at

298\,\text{K}

. The measured equilibrium constants are listed in the table.

Reaction	Balanced chemical equation (all species gaseous)	$K_{\mathrm{eq}}$
A	\ce{A2 -> 2P}	$1.1\times10^{4}$
B	\ce{2B -> P + B2}	$7.5\times10^{-2}$
C	\ce{C + D -> P}	$3.6\times10^{1}$
D	\ce{E + F -> P + G}	$9.9\times10^{-6}$
E	\ce{H2 + I -> P}	$8.2$

Use the information provided to answer the questions that follow. (1) List the reactions in order of decreasing fraction of P present at equilibrium (the reaction that produces the greatest fraction of P first). (2) Identify every reaction in the table that can be reasonably classified as "essentially complete" under these conditions. Explain your criterion for that classification.

Related theory

Browse the problem library