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After completing the module, the learner will be able to:
1. Determine the volume or pressure of gas at different conditions;
2. Determine the pressure of the components or of the whole gas mixture;
3. Calculate the amount of products or reactants involved in a gaseous reaction; and
4. Explain the properties and behavior of a gas in terms of its molecular composition.
Keywords for the concepts to be learned:
a. Boyle’s Law e. Partial pressure
b. Charles’s Law f. Dalton’s Law
c. Avogadro’s Law g. Gas reaction stoichiometry
d. Ideal Gas Equation h. Kinetic Molecular Theory
There is abundance of gases in your surroundings, such as in the environment, at home, and
in other places. Gases are encountered or used in everyday life:
a. In the air, which supplies us with the gases we breathe
b. In the kitchen, wherein a gas (liquid petroleum gas) is used for heating or cooking
c. In the hospital, wherein gases are used to aid the breathing of patients
d. In the automobile, wherein gases are burned in order to make the cars move
e. In carbonated drinks, wherein a gas (carbon dioxide) makes the drinks
refreshing
PART ONE
Recall the definition of pressure and the unit for pressure.
Try to imagine the following:
A balloon and the role of the pressure of the gas inside the balloon.
Tire of a vehicle and the need to pump air into the tire up to a given pressure.
a. What will happen if the pressure is much lower than what it should be?
b. What will happen if the pressure is much greater than what it should be?
c. How is air pressure of the tire measured and expressed?
Pressure Units:
a. The old air pump in the gasoline stations used the unit pounds per square inch (psi),
which is widely used especially in the United States, but usage of which is
supposedly discouraged.
b. Later on, the new air pumps used kilopascal (KPa) (or newton per square meter,
N/m2), which is the SI unit for pressure.
c. In chemistry, a widely used unit for pressure is the atmosphere (atm), but the
International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry discourages its usage. However,
it takes some time for usage of this unit to be discontinued.
d. Another old and popular unit for pressure is the Torr (or mmHg), yet the International
Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry is also discouraging the usage of this unit.
Relationship between the different units:
1 atm = 760 Torr (mm Hg)
1 atm = 101.3 kPa
Aside from pressure, the other parameters (or variables) used to describe gases
are volume and temperature.
The common unit for volume is the liter (L), but the SI unit for volume is m3. The equivalence
of the liter in SI units is simple:
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1 L = 1000 m3
1 L = 1 dm3
1 mL = 1 cm3
The common unit for temperature is degree Celsius (oC), but the SI unit is Kelvin (K). The
relationship between the units is K = oC + 273
The relationship between these three parameter are expressed by the Gas Laws:
1. Boyle’s Law
2. Charles’s Law
3. Avogadro’s Law
Boyle’s Law: ‘The volume of a given amount of gas is inversely proportional to its pressure
at constant temperature.’ Boyle’s Law is valid only if the amount of the gas and the
temperature is constant.
The mathematical expression for Boyle’s Law:
In terms of a proportion: V α 1/ P (at constant amount and temperature)
In terms of an equation: V = k / P (at constant amount and temperature)
P V = k or
P1 V1 = P2 V2
The graph relating pressure and volume. The plot is called an isotherm, since the
relationship is exhibited only at constant temperature.
A graph showing the relationship between
volume and pressure, as stated by Boyle’s
Law
ACTIVITY 1a: Solve the following problems.
1. A gas sample occupies a volume of 2.5 L at a pressure of 1.5 atm. What would be the
volume of the gas if its pressure is reduced to 1 atm at the same temperature?
2. The gas inside a balloon has a volume of 15.0 L at a pressure of 2.0 atm. Calculate the
pressure of the gas if its volume is compressed to 10.0 L at the same temperature.
Charles’s Law: ‘The volume of a given amount of gas is directly proportional to its absolute
temperature at constant pressure.’ Charles’s Law is valid only if the amount of the gas and
the pressure is constant. Also, the temperature should be expressed in the unit Kelvin (K).
The mathematical expression for Charles’s Law:
In terms of a proportion: V α T (at constant amount and pressure)
In terms of an equation: V = k T (at constant amount and pressure)
V / T = k or
V1 / T1 = V 2 / T2
The graph relating volume and temperature. The plot is called an isobar, since the
relationship is exhibited only at constant pressure.
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A graph showing the relationship between
volume and pressure, as stated by
Charles’ Law
ACTIVITY 1b. Solve the following problems:
1. At 30oC, the volume of a sample of air was 5.8 L. What would be the volume of the air
sample if it is heated to 60oC at the same pressure?
2. A given amount of oxygen gas has a volume of 25.0 L at a temperature of 37oC and a
pressure of 1.0 atm. At what temperature would this gas occupy a volume of 22.0
L at a pressure of 1.0 atm?
Avogadro’s Law: ‘The volume of a gas at a given temperature pressure is directly
proportional to the number of moles contained in the volume. This law is based on
Avogadro’s hypothesis that ‘the same volume of two gases at the same temperature and
pressure contain the same number of molecules’. Recall that the SI unit mole is related to
the number of molecules in a substance. Experiments have shown that the volume of 1.0
mole of a gas at 0oC and 1 atm is 22.4 L.
The mathematical expression for Avogadro’s Law:
In terms of a proportion: V α n (at constant temperature and pressure)
In terms of an equation: V = k n (at constant temperature and pressure)
V / n = k or
V 1 / n 1 = V 2 / n2
ACTIVITY 1c: Solve the following problems.
1. 1.0 mole of a gas occupies a volume of 22.4 L gas at 0oC and 1 atm. What would be
the volume of 7.5 mol of the gas at the same temperature and pressure?
2. The volume of a gas sample at 0oC and 1.0 atm is 10.0 L. How many moles of gas are
contained in the sample?
The three gas laws can be combined into a single equation known as the
Ideal Gas Equation: PV=nRT
This equation can be rearranged into an equation known as the combined gas law, which
holds true for a given amount of gas:
The combined gas law reduces to Boyle’s Law, if temperature is kept constant (i.e.T1=T2):
P1 V1 = P2V2
It also reduces to Charles’s Law, if pressure is kept constant (i.e. P1 = P2):
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It will also show that pressure of a gas is directly proportional to its absolute temperature, if
the volume is kept constant (i.e. V1 = V2):
The value of R can be calculated from the molar volume at 0oC and 1 atm (V=22.4L).
The importance of R, which is known as the gas constant and one of the few universal
constants (i.e. its value) is the same anywhere and anytime.
ACTIVITY 1d: Solve the following problems:
1. A gas sample occupies a volume of 12.0 L at 50oC and 700 Torr. How many moles of
gas are contained in the sample?
2. Calculate the volume that will be occupied by 20.0 g carbon dioxide at 25 oC and 1.25
atm.
3. What would be the pressure of 6.40 g oxygen gas in a vessel with a volume of 4.5 L at
20oC?
The ideal gas equation can be transformed into an expression involving density. The
number of moles n can be expressed in terms of mass and molar mass (or weight and
molecular weight, respectively): n=w/M
Introducing this into the ideal gas equation gives: P V = (w / M) R T which can be rearranged
into P M = (w / V) R T
The term w / V is recognized as equal to density, d, so that the equation becomes:
PM=dRT
Note that if the value of R as 0.0821 (atm L) / (mol K) is used, the unit for density in the
equation should be g/L.
For a given gas (i.e. M = constant ) at a given pressure, the equation can be reduced into
d T = K or
d1 T 1 = d2 T 2
This equation shows that the density of a gas is inversely proportional to its temperature.
This means that hot air has a lower density than cold air.
The relationship between density and temperature can explain:
a. The principle of the hot air balloon
b. The principle behind passive cooling in building design
PART TWO
Many of the gases encountered in the surrounding are mixtures. The Ideal Gas Equation
can also be applied not only to pure gases, but also to mixtures of gases.
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IMAGINE a system composed of three gases contained in a vessel of volume V and kept
at a temperature T. The number of moles of each gas is n1, n2 and n3, for gases 1, 2 and
3, respectively, so that the total number of moles of gases is:
n total = n1 + n2 + n3
The pressure of the mixture is given by the Ideal Gas Equation:
P mixture V = n total R T
Expressing ntotal in terms of the number of moles of each gas and solving for P mixture will
result in:
If the right-hand side of the equation is expanded, the expression becomes:
Realize that the term n1 R T / V is equal to P and see that the previous equation can be
written as:
The pressures P1, P2, and P3, called partial pressure of each gas, corresponds to the
pressure that the gas will exert in a volume equal to that of the mixture. According to this
expression, the total pressure of a gas mixture is equal to the sum of the partial
pressure of each gas. This is known as Dalton’s Law of Partial Pressure.
ACTIVITY 2a
Solve the following problems:
1. In a gas mixture composed of N2, Ne, and He, the partial pressure of N2 is 0.50 atm,
that of Ne is 1.1 atm, and that of He is 0.80 atm. What is the total pressure of the
mixture?
2. A sample of oxygen gas, which is saturated with water vapor, is kept in a 10-L vessel
at 30oC and has a pressure of 758 Torr. If the pressure of the water vapor at this
temperature is 31.8 Torr, what would be the pressure of the dry oxygen?
The application of Dalton’s Law can also yield information about the composition of the
mixture in terms of the mole fraction of each component. The expression for the pressure
of gas 1 and that of the mixture:
Dividing P1 by Pmixture gives the following expression:
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The term at the right-hand of the equation is actually a fraction, i.e. part divided the whole,
and is known as mole fraction X1. Rearranging the expression leads to an important
relationship:
ACTIVITY 2b
Solve the following problems:
1. In a gas mixture composed of N2, Ne, and He, the partial pressure of N2 is 0.50 atm,
that of Ne is 1.1 atm, and that of He is 0.80 atm. Calculate the mole fraction of each
gas.
2. A gas mixture contains 2.5 mol N2 and 9.7 mol CO2, and has a pressure of 2.3 atm.
What is the partial pressure of each gas?
PART THREE
This part allows you dear learners to realize that reactions involving gases are
common, such as the burning of fuel and the digestion of sugars:
2 C4H10 (g) + 13 O2 (g) ------------------> 8 CO2 (g) + 10 H2O (l)
C6H12O6 (aq) + 6 O2 (g) ------------------> 3 CO2 (g) + 6 H2O (l)
Try to recall the basic principle of reaction stoichiometry which is expressed by the balanced
chemical equation and the following principles learned in the early part of this module:
1. The Ideal Gas Equation enables the calculation of the number of moles of a gas from
its pressure, volume, and temperature:
2. The volume of a gas at standard temperature (0oC) and standard pressure (1 atm) can
provide information about the number of moles of the gas, through the known molar
volume under the standard condition:
These principles are useful in calculating the amount of gases involved in a reaction.
ACTIVITY 3a: Solve the following problems.
1. The airbag is a safety device used in cars to cushion the passenger during a crash. It
involves the following chemical reaction which is triggered by an impact:
2 NaN3 (s) ------------------> 2 Na (s) + 3 N2 (g)
Calculate the volume of N2 gas (measured at STP) that can be produced from 130.0
g of NaN3 (molar mass = 65).
2. Acetylene is formed by the reaction of water with calcium carbide, according to the
following equation:
CaC2 (s) + 2 H2O(l) ------------------> Ca(OH)2 (aq) + C2H2 (g)
How many grams of CaC2 would be needed to produce 10.0 L (measured at STP)
acetylene?
3. The reaction involved in the explosive combustion of acetylene is:
2 C2H2 (g) + 5 O2(g) ------------------> 4 CO2 (g) + 2 H2 (g)
How many L of CO2 gas (measured at STP) will be formed during the combustion
of 50.0 L C2H2 gas (measured at STP)?
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PART FOUR
The gas laws summarize the general behavior of gases. Through these laws, the behavior
of gases can be predicted. However, no explanation is given for this behavior. The
explanation is provided by the Kinetic Molecular Theory. The theory assumes a model which
can be used to explain why gases behave the way they do. The model is described through
a set of postulates:
1. Gases are made up of very small molecules,which are separated by a very great
distance between them. The dimension of the molecules is very much smaller than
the distance between them.
2. Because of the very great distance between them, the force of attraction between the
molecules is negligible. The molecules are independent of each other.
3. The molecules are in constant motion, moving in randomly in all directions.
4. Due to the great number of molecules and their random motion, it is unavoidable
that the molecules will collide with each other and with the walls of the container.
5. During these collisions, there is no change in the momentum of the molecules.
6. The average kinetic energy of the molecules is determined only by the absolute
temperature of the gas.
ACTIVITY 4a: Draw a representation OR model of the Kinetic Molecular Theory. Apply this
model to explain some properties of gases given below:
a. Why can gases be compressed?
b. Why does the volume of a gas decrease as the pressure is increased at constant
temperature?
c. Why do gases exert pressure?
d. Why does the volume of a gas increase as it is heated at constant pressure?
A mathematical treatment of the Kinetic Molecular Theory would lead to an equation for the
root-mean-square velocity of the molecule:
This equation clearly shows that as the temperature increases, the velocity of the molecule
increases.The gas molecules move faster at a higher temperature. It also shows that as the
molar mass M of the molecule increases, the velocity of the molecule decreases. If the
velocity of two molecules of molar mass M1 and M2 are compared, the result is
The velocity of the molecules determines the rate of diffusion of the gases. The relationship
between diffusion rate and molar mass has been verified by experiments, and is known as
Graham’s Law of Diffusion.
Imagine that two bottles are placed at opposite ends of the room at equal distance. One
bottle contains ammonia gas, NH3 (M = 17) which has a pungent odor, and the other
contains hydrogen sulfide, H2S (M = 34) which has an odor like that of a rotten egg. Which
odor will be sensed first?
KEEP SAFE!
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