Question

Illustrate Gay-Lussac's Law of combining volumes by referring to the reaction between :

(c) nitrogen and oxygen to form nitrogen monoxide

Answer 1

Gay-Lussac's Law of combining volumes:

• According to this law, when gases react to form new gases, the ratio of the volume of gaseous reactants to the gaseous products is expressed as simple whole number ratio. The conditions required are constant pressure and temperature.
• This law is only applicable to gases. As a result, the volumes of solids and liquids are assumed to be zero.

Reaction between nitrogen $\left({\mathrm{N}}_2\right)$ and oxygen $\left({\mathrm{O}}_2\right)$:

• $1$ volume of nitrogen reacts with $1$ volume of oxygen to form $2$ volumes of nitrogen monoxide $\left(\text{NO}\right)$ at the same pressure and temperature.
• The ratio between the volumes of gaseous reactants and product is $1:1:2$. This is a simple whole-number ratio.
• The reaction is as follows:

$$\begin{gathered} {\mathrm{N}}_2\left(\mathrm{g}\right)+{\mathrm{O}}_2\left(\mathrm{g}\right)\to 2\mathrm{NO}\left(\mathrm{g}\right) \\ 1\mathrm{vol}1\mathrm{vol}2\mathrm{vols} \end{gathered}$$