P3 – Explain chemical equilibrium in terms of the concentratons of reactants and
products:
M3 – Explain how concentratonn temperaturen pressure and the presence of a catalyst
influence the positon of chemical equilibrium:
What an equilibrium is, it’s when there is no change in rate of the reacton between the
forward and backward reactonss This means that in this specifc reacton there is no
difference in the concentraton between the products and the reactantss Howeveer, when a
chemical equilibrium is reached, it is called a dynamic balances One of the examples of the
equilibrium reacton could be seen in hydrogen and iodines When this reacton takes place
the concentraton of the hydrogen tends to decrease due to it being used ups This suggests
that in terms of the forward and backwards reactons, the forward reacton starts to slow
downs The hydrogen iodide concentraton begins to increase because more product is being
mades This suggests that the rate of the backwards reactons tends to increase rapidlys
Howeveer, with equilibrium there would come a point where both forward and backwards
reactons would begin to both leveel out and result with equal ratess
The dynamic equilibrium on the other hand would be taking place much more notceably if a
radioactvee iodine is being added to the hydrogen and iodine reactons In this the reacton
would become slower and slower untl it reaches an equilibrium with the fnal product being
the same hydrogen iodides The only difference between the products would be that the
dynamic equilibrium reacton would havee some of the radioactvee iodine presents This
reacton would only take place if the experiment is being carried out in closed spaces where
the gases havee no way of escapings This would also mean that the reactants wouldn’t be
exposed to any of the other chemicals such as oxygen causing an alteraton in the reacton
process and a formaton of different productss When there is no more product formed and
no the rate of the reacton becomes constant that means that the equilibrium has been
reacheds