Year 11 - Science
Equilibrium: balance between rate, safety, environment and economics
Industrial chemistry
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
This unit covers corrosion, prevention methods, and properties of alloys, ceramics, polymers, and metals. It explores industrial processes like the Haber process, fertiliser production, reaction rates, yields, atom economy, and the trade-offs involving conditions and equilibrium.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to describe how various factors influence the reaction conditions for industrial equilibria, and understand the trade-offs between production rate, equilibrium position, safety, and cost.
Key Notes
- Industrial equilibria involve a trade-off between production rate and equilibrium position.
- Temperature, pressure, surface area, concentration, and catalysts impact rates and equilibrium, often in opposing ways.
- High pressures and temperatures boost reaction rates but must balance safety and cost.
- High pressures are costly and increase equipment failure risk.
- Low temperatures slow reactions but can favour desired product in exothermic reactions.
Vocabulary To Learn
- equilibrium position: refers to the relative concentrations of reactants and products in a reversible reaction at equilibrium.
- dynamic equilibrium: occurs in a closed system when the forward and reverse reactions of a reversible chemical reaction are occurring at the same rate; and the concentrations of reactants and products remain constant.
- reaction rate: is the speed with which a chemical reaction takes place, measured by the amount of a reactant used or amount of product formed in a given time.
- Haber process: an industrial method for producing ammonia.
- Contact process: an industrial method for producing sulfuric acid.
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Higher temperature/pressure always increases the yield of products in equilibrium reactions.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the scientific idea in this lesson using two key points.
Industrial equilibria involve a trade-off between production rate and equilibrium position. Temperature, pressure, surface area, concentration, and catalysts impact rates and equilibrium, often in opposing ways.
2. Define this scientific word and use it in context. 'equilibrium position'
refers to the relative concentrations of reactants and products in a reversible reaction at equilibrium. Include the word in a full scientific explanation, not as a single label.
3. Correct this common scientific misunderstanding.
Mistake: Higher temperature/pressure always increases the yield of products in equilibrium reactions. Correction: High temperature can decrease yield in exothermic reactions by shifting equilibrium toward reactants; high pressures can decrease yield where there are fewer gaseous moles of reactants than products.
More Lessons In This Unit
- Ammonia: NPK fertiliser production and other applications Study Guide
- Chemical equilibrium Study Guide
- Comparing materials and their properties Study Guide
- Corrosion and its prevention Study Guide
- Corrosion and its prevention: including half equations Study Guide
- Factors affecting equilibrium Study Guide
- Industrial equilibria: Contact Process Study Guide
- Industrial equilibria: Haber Process Study Guide
- Introduction to reversible chemical reactions Study Guide
- Making ammonia Study Guide
- NPK fertilisers, agriculture and other applications Study Guide
- Percentage yield and atom economy Study Guide
- Percentage yield and atom economy (RAM 1 d.p.) Study Guide
- Transition metals Study Guide
- Transition metals: physical and chemical properties Study Guide
- Transition metals: properties and uses Study Guide
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