Chapter 5, Problem 121E

Interpretation Introduction

Interpretation: For the given carbon monoxides, relative rate of effusion should be determined and some advantages and disadvantages of separating oxygen isotopes by gaseous diffusion of carbon dioxide instead of carbon monoxide should be mentioned.

Concept introduction:

Effusion is used to describe the passage of a gas through a tiny particle into an evacuated chamber.

The rate of effusion is the measure  of speed at which the gas is transferred to the chamber.

According to Thomas Graham the rate of effusion of a gas is inversely proportional to the square root of the mass of its particles.

The relative rate of effusion of two gases at the same temperature and pressure are the inverse ratio of the square root of the masses of the gases particles. That is,

$\begin{array}{l}\frac{Rateofeffusionforgas1}{Rateofeffusionforgas2}=\frac{\sqrt{M_2}}{\sqrt{M_1}}\\ or\\ \frac{Rat{e}_1}{Rat{e}_2}={\left(\frac{M_2}{M_1}\right)}^{1/2}\end{array}$

${\text{M}}_{\text{1}}\text{and}{\text{M}}_{\text{2}}\text{are}\text{the}\text{molar}\text{masses}\text{of}{\text{gas}}_{\text{1}}\text{and}{\text{gas}}_{\text{2}}$

This equation is known as Graham’s law of effusion.