Abstract: There are gases in the container: N0, NO2, CO, CO2, O2. Since O2 can participate in two chemical reactions at the same time, five related equations can be generated. After simplification, a one variable nine degree equation will be obtained, which will have multiple equilibrium solutions. The second law of thermodynamics requires that the equilibrium state is unique, and the system will be in a non-equilibrium chemical state.
See image for details
So what is the problem? You obtain more than one solution; one of them has the lowest Gibbs energy (assuming that you keep the pressure and the temperature constant), and that is the stable state.
Changing the conditions, i.e., adding a mixture component, can eventually make the system jump to another stable state. This phenomenon has been described, for instance, for the ammonia synthesis from hydrogen and nitrogen.
There is no problem with the 2nd Law.
This happens even in the most simple chemical equilibrium:
A + B AB
Solving the chemical equilibrium equation with the mass conservation equations:
K = [AB]/[A][B]
[A]T=[A]+[AB]
[B]T=[B]+[AB]
results in a quadratic equation for [AB] which has two real solutions. One of them is meaningless because corresponds to either [AB]>[A]T or [AB]
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Filing