An air purifiction system involving litium hydroxide, LiOH, was used. LiOH absorbs carbon dioxide.
2LiOH(s) + CO2(g) <---> Li2CO3(s) + H2O(l)
Use Le Chatelier's principle to explain why the amount of time astronauts can spend in a space-craft is limited?
This is what I think. When we breath in oxygenm we breath out carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide reacts with the lithium oxide and continues to produce h2o and li2co3. if they keep releasing carbondioxide, they'll keep producing li2co3 and h20. I don't exactly see whats wrong with that. Is Li3CO2 hazardous or something.
Le Chatelier's principle states that when a system at equilibrium is subjected to a change in conditions, it will shift in a way that minimizes the effect of the change. In this case, the system involves the reaction between lithium hydroxide (LiOH) and carbon dioxide (CO2) in a closed space-craft environment.
The reaction between LiOH and CO2 is a reversible reaction represented by the equation:
2LiOH(s) + CO2(g) ⇌ Li2CO3(s) + H2O(l)
When the system is at equilibrium, it means that the forward and backward reactions are occurring at the same rate. In this equilibrium system, the absorption of carbon dioxide by LiOH produces lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) and water (H2O).
Now, let's consider the impact of the change on the system. When astronauts spend time in a space-craft, they exhale carbon dioxide, which increases the concentration of CO2 in the environment.
According to Le Chatelier's principle, an increase in the concentration of CO2 will shift the equilibrium of the system to the left, towards the reactant side, to minimize the effect of the increase. This means that more LiOH will react with CO2 to form Li2CO3 and H2O, depleting the LiOH concentration.
However, since the amount of LiOH is limited, a continuous increase in CO2 concentration will eventually exhaust the available LiOH. The equilibrium will then shift towards the right, favoring the formation of CO2, which is undesirable.
As the concentration of CO2 rises and LiOH becomes depleted, the air purification system becomes less effective at removing carbon dioxide. Breathing in a high concentration of carbon dioxide can be detrimental to human health and can lead to various physiological problems. Therefore, to maintain a safe environment for astronauts, the limitation of LiOH availability restricts the amount of time they can spend in a space-craft before the air purifying system becomes ineffective.