EXPERIMENT NO.

CHEMICAL EQUILIBRIUM Abong, A.R.C

Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City 1101 Philippines

Discussions A condition of equilibrium is attained when the reactants and products when the products produced by the reactants is also consumed to form the reactants at same rates. In the chemical equation: A+BC+D reactants A and B were consumed to form the products C and D (forward reaction), and products C and D would also be used for the formation of the initial reactants (backward reaction). When the rates of these two are equal, then there exists a state of equilibrium. The equilibrium constant (keq) can be calculated using the equation: The balanced chemical equation in this reaction is Fe2+(aq)+Ag+(aq)Fe3+(aq)+Ag(s). By using centrifugation and decantation, Ag(s) was separated and removed and the supernate was tested for the presence of three ions. Table I. A reaction between Iron (II) and Silver Nitrate Test Visible Net Ionic Equation result reagent K3Fe(CN) Prussian Fe2+(aq)+[Fe(CN)6]3+(aq) blue 6 Fe[Fe(CN)6]3+(aq) KSCNS Blood Fe3+(aq)+SCN-(aq) red Fe(SCN)2+(aq) Reaction HCl White Ag+(aq)+ Cl-(aq) precipitat AgCl(s) e The Keq can have the value that ranges from .10 to 10. This proved that all the three ions are still present even though it is on the reactant side or in other words, the reaction does not go to completion. Table II. A reaction Copper Sulfate Initial Number of drops added Initial ------Addition 1(R1); of NH3 30(R2) Addition 11(R3) of HCl between Ammonia and Color

keq= [C]eq[D]eq / [A]eq[B]eq Where [C], [D], [A], [B] are the concentrations of each specific species in its equilibrium state. According to Le Chateliers Principle, equations in equilibrium shifts to either left or right, depending on the amount of the reactant added or removed from the system. It can be said that when a reaction is in equilibrium, the reactants are not completely converted to products, that is, the reaction do not go to completion. This was studied in the experiment through the state of equilibrium between iron (II) and silver ions.

Pale blue solution Blue ppt.; deep blue solution Pale blue solution

In the reaction of ammonia and copper, Cu2+ + 4NH3 Cu(NH3)42+, a blue precipitate, Cu(OH)2(s) was formed. It can be shown by Cu(OH)2 Cu2+ + 2OH-

H2SO4 was used to acidify the solution so that the color change will be seen more clearly because H2SO4 is a strong acid, thus can cause farther shifting in the reaction. Meanwhile, dichromate is in a state of equilibrium in acidic medium while chromate is in a state of equilibrium in basic medium because when you add acid and base respectively in the two mentioned species, it does not shift to either left or right. For the fourth part of the experiment, shift in equilibrium due to the addition of a species was being studied. In the balanced chemical equation of FeCl3 + SCN- FeSCN-, addition of FeCl3 and KSCN shift the reaction to the right because of the addition of the amount of the reactants. On the otherhand, the addition of NaCl shifts the equilibrium to the left because the equation wishes to be in equilibrium again. The reaction wants to consume the added substance so it shifts to the left. Table V. Cobalt (II) ions system Color Before addition of HCl Light pink After addition of HCl Light purple At room temperature Light purple At boiling water blue temperature Balanced Chemical Equation: Co(H2O)62+ + 4Cl CoCl42- + 6H2O

Cu2+ + 4NH3 Cu(NH3)42+ Cu(OH)2 + 4NH3 Cu(NH3)42+ + 2OHAs you add excess NH3, a deep blue solution was formed and all the precipitate disappeared. It is because of the high concentration of ammonia (compared to Cu2+) which pushes the reaction to go to completion. On the other hand, the addition of HCl, as it reacts with NH3, pushes the reaction to shift backwards. Thus, as you add HCl, the result will be a pale blue solutionthe initial color seen in this part of the experiment. Table III. Chromate and Dichromate system Well reagent Visible Net ionic equation no. result 1 K2CrO4, Dark 2CrO42- + 2H+ H2SO4 yellow Cr2O72- + H2O 2 K2CrO4, Light NaOH yellow 3 K2Cr2O7, Dark H2SO4 yellow 4 K2Cr2O7, Light Cr2O72- + OH- NaOH yellow 2CrO42- + 2H2O The color of chromate solution is yellow while the color of dichromate solution is orange. By using this as the basis to know the shift in equilibrium, it can be concluded that addition of base in dichromate solution shifts the equilibrium to the right because the color became light yellow, on the other hand; addition of acid in chromate shifts the equilibrium to the right because its color became dark yellow, which is closer to orange.

Cobalt (II) ions are pink while CoCl42+ ions are purple. Before heating, the color of the solution is light purple. Thus, the shift is directed towards the right. After immersing this test tube into the boiling water bath, the color changes to blue. The reaction is endothermic because of the addition of heat in the vessel and the color blue is closer to purple than to pink.

Conclusions This experiment showed how chemical equilibrium works. From part A, it was proved that reactions in equilibrium do not go to completion because even though Fe3+, Fe2+,and Ag+ were not all found in the product side, they are still present when we tested the supernate of the solution. In part B and C of this experiment, it was seen that addition of one reagent in one side of the equation can cause shift or no shift in equilibrium. For example, the addition of a base in dichromate solution makes a forward reaction but has no effect if it is added in a chromate solution and addition of acid in chromate solution makes a forward reaction, but makes no effect on the dichromate solution. For part D, it can be concluded that addition of the concentration of a reactant makes a forward reaction, but introduction of other kind of reactant in the reaction makes a backward reaction because the system wishes to achieve equilibrium state again by consuming the new species introduced in the reaction. In the last part of the reaction, change in temperature was used to manipulate the shift in the reaction. If the reaction is endothermic, the reaction proceeds forward because the hotter part will equilibrate the temperature in the system by going to the colder part. We can also say that if the system was heated, the system will tend produce more product.