Gaseous sulfur trioxide can be catalytically decomposed by flowing the gas down a heated tube. The reaction depends on many different parameters, such as catalyst used, wall surface temperature, mole flow rate of the reacting mixture, diameter of the reactor tube, length of the reactor tube, operating pressure, and inlet temperature of the reacting mixture. Suppose to study the decomposition reaction, a chemist introduces a sample of sulfur trioxide (SO3) into an evacuated sealed container and heated to 600 K. The following equilibrium is established:
2 SO3(g) ? 2 SO2(g) + O2(g)
The total pressure in the system at equilibrium is 3.0 atm. A separate measurement shows that the mole fraction of O2 at equilibrium is 0.12.
(a) Write the Kp expression for this reaction.
(b) Calculate the partial pressure, in atm, of oxygen at equilibrium.
(c) Calculate the partial pressure, in atm, of SO2 at equilibrium.