Sciencemadness Discussion Board

EQUILIB Web site wrong ??

metalresearcher - 21-9-2010 at 04:49

When filling in on this site
http://www.crct.polymtl.ca/equiweb.php

0oC , 1 atm, 2 mol Al + 0.5 mol Na2CO3

shows

2 Al + 0.5 Na2CO3 =

0.00000 mol gas_ideal
(0.00 C, 1 atm, a=6.5030E-16)
( 6.5030E-16 Na
+ 2.9784E-21 Na2
+ 1.1614E-56 Al
+ 3.1210E-70 Al2O)

+ 0.84211 mol Na_solid
(19.360 gram, 0.84211 mol)
(0.00 C, 1 atm, S1, a=1.0000)

+ 0.38596 mol Al_solid
(10.414 gram, 0.38596 mol)
(0.00 C, 1 atm, S1, a=1.0000)

+ 0.16667 mol Al4C3_solid
(23.993 gram, 0.16667 mol)
(0.00 C, 1 atm, S1, a=1.0000)

+ 7.8947E-02 mol Na2Al12O19_beta2-alumina
(53.191 gram, 7.8947E-02 mol)
(0.00 C, 1 atm, S1, a=1.0000)


which tells as much that Na2CO3 reactis with Al metal at room temperature.
Complete nonsense of course.
Normally they produce reliable results but this ????

Does anyone know this site ?

[Edited on 2010-9-21 by metalresearcher]

DDTea - 22-9-2010 at 07:28

I wouldn't call it "complete nonsense." Did you specify which products you were interested in? There's always some equilibrium at play, and it looks this little applet is calculating a bunch of possible reactions and the theoretical equilibria for them.

Also, are you sure that 0 C is room temperature? :P

metalresearcher - 22-9-2010 at 07:34

I am just interested in making Na metal from Na2CO3 + Al metal.

DDTea - 22-9-2010 at 15:31

So the proposed reaction is:

3 Na2CO3 + 2 Al --?--> 6 Na + 3 CO2 + Al2O3 ? Or something like that...

Here's the result I'm getting for 298.15 K and 1 bar, and using a cutoff of 1e-5:

T = 298.15 K
P = 1.00000E+00 bar
V = 0.00000E+00 dm3

EQUIL. AMOUNT (mol):

NaAlO2_solid-a(s) 2.0000
C_graphite(s) 1.5000
Na2CO3_solid_a(s) 1.5000
Na2O_solid-a(s) 0.5000

So, it's predicting that some reaction happens, just not the one you were thinking of :P

This is kind of a cool site, but it's not doing what I'd like it to do (i.e.: for given reactants and products, give me the equilibrium data).

Rogeryermaw - 4-10-2010 at 09:11

Quote: Originally posted by metalresearcher  
I am just interested in making Na metal from Na2CO3 + Al metal.


this is something i was interested in as well but i thought that this reaction would not run because sodium is higher on the reactivity series than aluminum.