IDEAL GASES AND THE IDEAL GAS LAW

This page looks at the assumptions which are made in the Kinetic
Theory about ideal gases, and takes an introductory look at the
Ideal Gas Law: pV = nRT. This is intended only as an introduction
suitable for chemistry students at about UK A level standard (for 16
- 18 year olds), and so there is no attempt to derive the ideal gas
law using physics-style calculations.

Kinetic Theory assumptions about ideal gases

There is no such thing as an ideal gas, of course, but many gases
behave approximately as if they were ideal at ordinary working
temperatures and pressures. Real gases are dealt with in more
detail on another page.
The assumptions are:

Gases are made up of molecules which are in constant

random motion in straight lines.

The molecules behave as rigid spheres.

Pressure is due to collisions between the molecules and the

walls of the container.

All collisions, both between the molecules themselves, and

between the molecules and the walls of the container, are
perfectly elastic. (That means that there is no loss of kinetic
energy during the collision.)

The temperature of the gas is proportional to the average

kinetic energy of the molecules.

And then two absolutely key assumptions, because these are the

two most important ways in which real gases differ from ideal
gases:

There are no (or entirely negligible) intermolecular forces

between the gas molecules.

The volume occupied by the molecules themselves is

entirely negligible relative to the volume of the container.

The Ideal Gas Equation

The ideal gas equation is:

pV = nRT
On the whole, this is an easy equation to remember and use. The
problems lie almost entirely in the units. I am assuming below that
you are working in strict SI units (as you will be if you are doing a
UK-based exam, for example).

Exploring the various terms

Pressure, p
Pressure is measured in pascals, Pa - sometimes expressed as
newtons per square metre, N m-2. These mean exactly the same
thing.
Be careful if you are given pressures in kPa (kilopascals). For
example, 150 kPa is 150,000 Pa. You must make that conversion
before you use the ideal gas equation.
Should you want to convert from other pressure measurements:

1 atmosphere = 101,325 Pa

1 bar = 100 kPa = 100,000 Pa

Volume, V
This is the most likely place for you to go wrong when you use this
equation. That's because the SI unit of volume is the cubic metre,
m3 - not cm3 or dm3.
1 m3 = 1000 dm3 = 1,000,000 cm3
So if you are inserting values of volume into the equation, you first
have to convert them into cubic metres.
You would have to divide a volume in dm3 by 1000, or in cm3 by a
million.
Similarly, if you are working out a volume using the equation,
remember to covert the answer in cubic metres into dm 3 or cm3 if
you need to - this time by multiplying by a 1000 or a million.
If you get this wrong, you are going to end up with a silly answer,
out by a factor of a thousand or a million. So it is usually fairly
obvious if you have done something wrong, and you can check
back again.

Number of moles, n
This is easy, of course - it is just a number. You already know that
you work it out by dividing the mass in grams by the mass of one
mole in grams.
You will most often use the ideal gas equation by first making the
substitution to give:

I don't recommend that you remember the ideal gas equation in this
form, but you must be confident that you can convert it into this
form.

The gas constant, R

A value for R will be given you if you need it, or you can look it up in
a data source. The SI value for R is 8.31441 J K-1 mol-1.
Note: You may come across other values for this with different units.
A commonly used one in the past was 82.053 cm 3 atm K-1 mol-1. The
units tell you that the volume would be in cubic centimetres and the
pressure in atmospheres. Unfortunately the units in the SI version
aren't so obviously helpful.

The temperature, T
The temperature has to be in kelvin. Don't forget to add 273 if you
are given a temperature in degrees Celsius.

Using the ideal gas equation

Calculations using the ideal gas equation are included in my
calculations book (see the link at the very bottom of the page), and
I can't repeat them here. There are, however, a couple of
calculations that I haven't done in the book which give a reasonable
idea of how the ideal gas equation works.
The molar volume at stp
If you have done simple calculations from equations, you have

probably used the molar volume of a gas.

1 mole of any gas occupies 22.4 dm3 at stp (standard temperature
and pressure, taken as 0C and 1 atmosphere pressure). You may
also have used a value of 24.0 dm3 at room temperature and
pressure (taken as about 20C and 1 atmosphere).
These figures are actually only true for an ideal gas, and we'll have
a look at where they come from.

We can use the ideal gas equation to calculate the volume of 1

mole of an ideal gas at 0C and 1 atmosphere pressure.
First, we have to get the units right.
0C is 273 K. T = 273 K
1 atmosphere = 101325 Pa. p = 101325 Pa
We know that n = 1, because we are trying to calculate the volume
of 1 mole of gas.
And, finally, R = 8.31441 J K-1 mol-1.
Slotting all of this into the ideal gas equation and then rearranging it
gives:

And finally, because we are interested in the volume in cubic

decimetres, you have to remember to multiply this by 1000 to
convert from cubic metres into cubic decimetres.

The molar volume of an ideal gas is therefore 22.4 dm 3 at stp.

And, of course, you could redo this calculation to find the volume of
1 mole of an ideal gas at room temperature and pressure - or any
other temperature and pressure.

Finding the relative formula mass of a gas from its density

This is about as tricky as it gets using the ideal gas equation.
The density of ethane is 1.264 g dm-3 at 20C and 1 atmosphere.
Calculate the relative formula mass of ethane.
The density value means that 1 dm3 of ethane weighs 1.264 g.
Again, before we do anything else, get the awkward units sorted
out.
A pressure of 1 atmosphere is 101325 Pa.
The volume of 1 dm3 has to be converted to cubic metres, by
dividing by 1000. We have a volume of 0.001 m 3.
The temperature is 293 K.
Now put all the numbers into the form of the ideal gas equation
which lets you work with masses, and rearrange it to work out the
mass of 1 mole.

The mass of 1 mole of anything is simply the relative formula mass

in grams.
So the relative formula mass of ethane is 30.4, to 3 sig figs.

Now, if you add up the relative formula mass of ethane, C 2H6 using
accurate values of relative atomic masses, you get an answer of
30.07 to 4 significant figures. Which is different from our answer so what's wrong?
There are two possibilities.

The density value I have used may not be correct. I did the
sum again using a slightly different value quoted at a
different temperature from another source. This time I got an
answer of 30.3. So the density values may not be entirely
accurate, but they are both giving much the same sort of
answer.

Ethane isn't an ideal gas. Well, of course it isn't an ideal gas

- there's no such thing! However, assuming that the density
values are close to correct, the error is within 1% of what you
would expect. So although ethane isn't exactly behaving like
an ideal gas, it isn't far off.

If you need to know about real gases, now is a good time to read
about them.