What are the units of Kp, (Gas phase equilibrium)

[AMan24]

I know the units of Kc are mol/liter. The units of Kp are either mol/atm or just atm. Not really sure. I get mles atm and liters in my answer when i solve. Pretty weird

 

[DrClaude]

All equilibrium constants should be dimensionless, as the concentrations or pressures should be expressed in terms of a reference concentration/pressure, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equilibrium_constant#Definitions

 

[Borek]

Actually Kp (and Kc) have no units.

Note, that you will get different units for different reactions, depending on the set of coefficients used. Try

2A ↔ B
A ↔ B

and

A ↔ 2B

and you will see what I mean.

That's when you try to express K using pressures or concentrations, but - what is often omitted in an approximate treatment used when teaching beginners - K is expressed using activities. As a first approximation activity is equal to the concentration (or pressure), but it can differ. We express it with

a_A = γ_A[A]

where a_A is activity of A, γ_A is its activity coefficient (with units chosen so that the activity becomes unitles) and [A] is the A concentration (but it could be p_A, partial pressure of A, as well). For diluted solutions γ equals 1, but the higher the concentration, the more it can differ.

Also note that having units on K is a sure way of getting into problems. In thermodynamics we often need to calculate log of K (as in ΔG=RTln(K)) , good luck doing that when K is not unitles.

Edit: beaten by DrClaude.

 

[James Pelezo]

When is K_p = K_c?