The Haber process takes nitrogen gas from air and combines it with molecular hydrogen gas to form ammonia gas. This is an exothermic reaction, meaning it releases energy so that the sum of the enthalpies of N2 and H2 (the reactants) is greater than the enthalpy of NH3 (the products).
N2(g) + 3H2(g) → 2NH3(g)
The Haber process incorporates Le Chatlier's Principle, which is a good example of equilibrium principles. Uses of Le Chatlier's Principle are reversible reactions involving gases. Chemical equilibrium is when a reaction has no tendency to change the quantity of the reactants and products, so the reaction can go both ways.
1. Increasing the pressure and decreasing the temperature causes a move of the reaction to the right which results in the higher yield of ammonia.
2. When the pressure is increased, the system adapts to the change by moving the molecules left to right to decrease the overall pressure, because there are more molecules on the left side than the right side.
3. For temperature, it moves from right to left when the temperature drops is because of the process being exothermic, where heat is released.
4. The system adjusts to lessen the change, so it would make more heat to compensate for the energy lost, since that is the product of this. More ammonia would be made if more energy were made. If the temperature was increased to speed up the reaction, it would produce a smaller amount of ammonia yield.
N2 (g) + 3H2 (g) ↔ 2NH3 (g) -Examples of Le Chatlier's principle using this reaction.
1. If the volume is decreased here, it has the same result as when the pressure is decreased.
2. If the pressure is increased, in this equation, it will move right because there are fewer gas molecules are produced going to the right then the backwards one.
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