Chapter 14, Problem 14.6QP

Interpretation Introduction

Interpretation:

The reason for avoiding the concentrations of pure liquids and solids in the expression for the equilibrium constant has to be explained.

Concept introduction:

Equilibrium constant $\left({\text{K}}_{\text{c}}\right)$: A system is said to be in equilibrium when all the measurable properties of the system remains unchanged with the time.  Equilibrium constant is the ratio of the concentrations of the products to concentrations of the reactants at a given temperature.  Each concentration term is raised to a power, which is same as the coefficients in the chemical reaction.

Consider the reaction where the reactant A is giving product B.

$\text{A}\rightleftharpoons \text{B}$

The equilibrium constant,

${\text{K}}_{\text{c}}=\frac{\left[\text{A}\right]}{\left[\text{B}\right]}$