Contradiction between Henry's Law and Le Chatlier's Principle

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Discussion Overview

The discussion explores the apparent contradiction between Henry's Law and Le Chatelier's Principle in the context of gas solubility and reaction dynamics, particularly focusing on the carbonation of water and the effects of applying external pressure with a different gas.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant describes a scenario where applying external pressure with pure O2 affects the equilibrium of the carbonation reaction, questioning how this interacts with both Henry's Law and Le Chatelier's Principle.
  • Another participant asserts that Henry's Law is only valid under constant temperature conditions and suggests that increasing pressure would invalidate it, aligning with Le Chatelier's Principle instead.
  • A subsequent reply acknowledges the need for constant temperature in Henry's Law, indicating a realization of this condition.
  • Another participant raises a question about whether increasing partial pressure would inherently lead to a temperature increase, potentially invalidating Henry's Law in all cases.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the applicability of Henry's Law under changing pressure conditions, with some supporting Le Chatelier's Principle while others question the assumptions regarding temperature changes.

Contextual Notes

There are unresolved assumptions regarding the temperature dependency of Henry's Law and the implications of pressure changes on gas solubility and reaction dynamics.

johnny_b_good
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Le Chatlier's Principle is used to determine the direction of a reaciton based upon a stress put on the system. In addition, Henry's law states that the solubility of a gas is related to the partial pressure of that gas. Therefore I present a seemingly contradictory setting:

Example for Carbonation of Water:

CO2 (g) ⇔ CO2 (aq) ---- (1)
H2O (l) + CO2 (aq) ⇔ H2CO3 (aq) ------ (2)

If I apply an external pressure on the system with an oxygen take (pure O2 (g) -- I know, very dangerous, but just a theoretical situation), then Le Chatlier's principle would argue that reaction number (1) would shift towards the right to attain the lowest possiblity energy setting. However, if we use Henry's law, then we would say that the partial pressure of CO2 (g) remains constant ... since we are adding pure O2 (g) ... and therefore, the solubility of the gas would remain constant. That is Le Chat's says concentration of CO2 (aq) increases, but Henry's says that CO2 (aq) remains constant.

Am I missing something relatively large here? thanks for the help
 
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Henry's law requires a constant temperature, and by increasing the pressure to the system, you'll cause a change in temperature, so Henry's law is invalid in this case. The reaction will behave just as Le Chatelier's principle suggests.

A gas law that would be applicable to this scenario is the ideal gas law, PV=nRT. You could determine the change of gas molecules expected from a pressure change if you also know the volume and temperature change.
 
Ok thanks for the help. I forgot that it dealt with constant temperature.
 
Well, on that note. Wouldn't increasing the partial pressure always generate a net temperature increase (no matter how small)? And thus invalidate Henry's Law?
 

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