Quantitative equilibrium calculations

Fundamentals
     In environmental chemistry we want to know:
     What is the use of knowing fi2 ?
     Spreadsheet
     Recommendation
Problems
Excercises for an improved intuitive understanding
Questions for recapitulation
Good to know
Minesweeper-problems

What is the use of knowing fi2?

  • fi 2 multiplied by 100 gives the percentage of the total amount of i in the system, Mi tot , that resides in phase 2.
  • fi 2 multiplied by Mi tot gives the absolute amount of i in phase 2.
  • fi 2 Mi tot / V2 gives the equilibrium concentration of i in phase 2.
  • 1- fi 2 gives i.e., the fraction of i that resides in phase 1. And so on.

Analogous equations can be derived for multiphase systems and for phases that are not quantified by volume but by their mass or surface area (see Chapter 3 in the script).

With these equations one can do many useful calculations (see below for examples). In order not to do all these calculations by hand it helps to have a spread sheet at hand that can do all these calculations.

 

 

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