High school10 min

Le Chatelier's principle: predicting how an equilibrium shifts

Concentration, pressure, temperature, catalyst: tell which way the equilibrium shifts, what happens to K, and make sense of the Haber-Bosch trade-offs.

The essentials

1

The principle

When a system at equilibrium is disturbed, it moves in the direction that tends to oppose the disturbance. The principle is qualitative: it gives the direction of the shift, not the new concentrations. For numbers, go back to QQ and KK.
2

Concentration

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3

Pressure

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4

Temperature

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5

Catalyst and the Haber-Bosch process

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