Acetic acid can be manufactured by combining methanol with carbon monoxide, an example of a carbonylation reaction:
CH3OH(l) + CO(g) → CH3COOH(l)
(a) Calculate the equilibrium constant for the reaction at 25 °C.
(b) Industrially, this reaction is run at temperatures above 25 °C.Will an increase in temperature produce an increase or decrease in the mole fraction of acetic acid at equilibrium? Why are elevated temperatures used?
(c) At what temperature will this reaction have an equilibrium constant equal to 1? (You may assume that ?H° and ?S° are temperature independent, and you may ignore any phase changes that might occur.)