GAS LAWS
EMCQ 1241/EMCI 1242
BY
JOHRA SAID ALI
Gas Laws
Gas laws deal with how gases behave with respect to pressure, volume, temperature and amount.
Boyle’s Law (The Pressure –Volume Law)
Gases are the only state of matter that can be compressed very tightly or expanded to fill a very large space.
Pressure is Force per unit Area, calculated by dividing the force by the area on which the force acts. For example, the earth’s
gravity acts on air molecules to create a force, that of the air pushing on the earth. This is called the Atmospheric pressure.
The units of pressure that are used are pascal (Pa), standard atmosphere (atm), and torr.
1 atm is the average pressure at sea level. It is normally used as a standard unit of pressure.
The SI unit though is the Pascal.
1 atm = 101325 Pa = 760 torr =760 mmHg
Discovered by Robert Boyle (1627-1691), Boyle’s law states that the volume of a given amount of gas held at constant
temperature varies inversely with the applied pressure when the temperature and mass are constant.
V α 1/P
VP= CONSTANT
This means that, when pressure goes up, volume goes down and vice versa.
From the above equation, the below can be derived:
P1V1 = P2V2 = P3V3 etc.
This equation states that the product of the initial volume and pressure is equal to the product of volume and pressure after a
Boyle’s Law
Gas Laws
Charles's Law (Temperature – Volume Law)
Discovered by Jacques Charles (1746-1823), Charles’s law states that the volume of a given amount of gas held at constant
pressure is directly proportional to the Kelvin temperature. If you increase the volume of a gas and must keep the pressure
constant the only way to achieve this is for the temperature of the gas to increase as well.
VαT
V/T = CONSTANT
With this expression, initial and final volumes and temperature under constant pressure can be calculated.
V1/T1 = V2/T2 =V3/T3 etc.
Gas Laws
Gay- Lussac’s Law (The Pressure – Temperature Law)
Discovered by Joseph Gay – Lussac (1778-1850), the law states that the pressure of a given amount of gas held at constant
volume is directly proportional to the Kelvin temperature.
If you heat a gas you give the molecules more energy so they move faster. This means more impacts on the walls of the container
and an increase in the pressure. Conversely if you cool the molecules down they will slow and the pressure will be decreased.
PαT
P/T = CONSTANT
Resulting to P1/T1 = P2/T2 =P3/T3 etc.
Gas Laws
Avogadro’s Law (The Volume – Amount Law)
Discovered by Amedeo Avogadro (1776 – 1856) , gives the relationship between volume and amount, when pressure and
temperature are held constant.
It is important to note that, Amount is measured in moles and since volume is one of the variables, that means the container
holding the gas is flexible in some way and can expand or contract.
That is, if the amount of gas in a container is increased, the volume increases and vice versa. Volume of container is directly
proportional to the amount of gas in it.
Vαn
V/n = CONSTANT
V1/n1 = V2/n2 =V3/n3 etc.
Gas Laws
The Ideal Gas Law
An Ideal gas, is the gas that obeys all the above laws.
It normally exists at very low pressures and very high temperatures. But over a wide range of temperature, pressure and volume,
real gases deviate slightly from ideal.
A combination of the laws presented above generates the Ideal Gas Law:
The addition of a proportionality constant called the Ideal or Universal Gas Constant (R) completes the equation.
There are a multitude of units possible for the constant. The only constant about the constant is that the temperature scale in all is
KELVIN.
When using the Ideal Gas Law to calculate any property of a gas, you match the units to the gas constant you choose to use and you
always must place your temperature into Kelvin.
To use the equation, you simply need to be able to identify what is missing from the question and rearrange the equation to solve for
Gas Laws
The Combined Gas Law
The combined gas law allows you to derive any of the relationships needed by combining all of the changeable pieces in the ideal
gas law: namely pressure, temperature and volume.
R and the number of moles do not appear in the equation as they are generally constant and therefore cancel since they appear
in equal amounts on both sides of the equation.
PV/T = CONSTANT
The equation can be solved for any of the parameters in it. But more importantly, you can eliminate from the equation anything
that will remain constant.
Gas Laws
Dalton’s Law of Partial Pressures
Discovered by John Dalton (1766-1844) states that, the total pressure of a mixture of non-reacting gases is the sum of their
individual partial pressures.
Ptotal = Pa + Pb + Pc + …………
Ptotal = naRT/V + nbRT/V + ncRT/V ……………..
Ptotal = (na + nb + nc + …….)RT/V
The pressure in a flask containing a mixture of 1 mole of 0.2 mole O 2 and 0.8 mole of N2, would be the same as the same flask
holding 1 mole of O2.
Partial pressures are useful when gases are
collected y bubbling through water (displacement).
The gas collected is saturated in H2O vapor which
contributes to the total number of moles of gas in the container.
Standard Operating Conditions
STP is short for Standard Temperature and Pressure, which is defined to be 273 K (0 degrees Celsius) and 1 atm pressure (or 10 5 Pa).
STP describes standard conditions and is often used for measuring gas density and volume using the Ideal Gas Law. Here, 1 mole of an ideal gas
occupies 22.4 L. An older definition used atmospheres for pressure, while modern calculations are for pascals.
Standard state conditions are used for thermodynamic calculations. Several conditions are specified for the standard state:
• The standard state temperature is 25 degrees C (298 K). Note that temperature is not specified for standard state conditions, but most tables
are compiled for this temperature.
• All gases are at 1 atm pressure.
• All liquids and gases are pure.
• All solutions are at 1M concentration.
• The energy of formation of an element in its normal state is defined as zero.
Standard state calculations may be performed at another temperature, most commonly 273 K (0 degrees Celsius), so standard state calculations
may be performed at STP. However, unless specified, assume standard state refers to the higher temperature.
While STP is useful for calculations, it's not practical for most lab experiments because they aren't usually conducted at 0 degrees C. SATP may be
used, which means Standard Ambient Temperature and Pressure. SATP is at 25 degrees C (298.15 K) and 101 kPa (essentially 1 atmosphere, 0.997
atm).
Another standard is NTP, which stands for Normal Temperature and Pressure. This is defined for air at 20 degrees C (293.15 K, 68 degrees F) and 1
atm.
Usually, the standard you use is either the one for which you can find data, the one closest to your actual conditions or the one required for a
specific discipline. Remember, the standards are close to actual values, but won't exactly match real conditions.
Examples
1. A balloon is filled with about 1300 mole of H2 gas. If the outside temperature was 21 and the atmospheric pressure was 750
mmHg. What was the volume of the balloon?
2. A 0.1g sample of a compound with the empirical formula CHF 2 is vaporized into a 256 ml flask at a temperature of 22.3 . The
pressure in the flask is measured to be 70.5 torr. What is the molecular formula of the compound?
3. A steel cylinder of volume 2 m3 contains methane gas (CH4) at 50 and 250 kPa absolute. How many kilograms of methane are
in the cylinder?
4. Calculate the volume in m3, occupied by 40 kg of CO2 at STP assuming CO2 acts as an ideal gas.
5. A sample of H2 gas was prepared in the laboratory by the reaction below. 456 ml of gas was collected at 22 . The total
pressure in the flask was 742 torr. How many moles of H2 were collected? The vapor pressure of H2O at 22 is 19.8 torr. Mg(s)
+ 2HCL(aq) → MgCl2(aq) +H2(g)
6. In one process the off-flue gas analyses had mole percentages of 14% CO 2, 6% O2 and 80% N2. The gases are at 400 0F and 765
mmHg. Calculate the partial pressures of each gas component.