5.11: Characteristics of Several Real Gases
- Page ID
- 15075
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Gases that deviate from ideality are known as Real Gases, which originate from two factors: (1) First, the theory assumes that as pressure increases, the volume of a gas becomes very small and approaches zero. While it does approach a small number, it will not be zero because molecules do occupy space (i.e. have volume) and cannot be compressed. (2) Intermolecular forces do exist in gases. These become increasingly important in low temperatures, when translational (definition of translational, please) molecular motion slows down, almost to a halt. However, at high temperatures, or even normal, every day temperatures, the intermolecular forces are very small and tend to be considered negligible.
Contributors and Attributions
Jim Clark (Chemguide.co.uk)
- Christian Dowell (UCD), Lara Cemo (UCD)