Raheema Javed
Last Activity: 10 Years ago
Le Châtelier'sprinciple states that if a dynamic equilibrium is disturbed by changing the conditions, the position of equilibrium shifts to counteract the change to reestablish an equilibrium. If a chemical reaction is at equilibrium and experiences a change in pressure, temperature, or concentration of products or reactants, the equilibrium shifts in the opposite direction to offset the change. This page covers changes to the position of equilibrium due to such changes and discusses briefly why catalysts have no effect on the equilibrium position.
An action that changes the temperature, pressure, or concentrations of reactants in a system at equilibrium stimulates a response that partially offsets the change while a new equilibrium condition is established (2). Hence, Le Châtelier's principle states that any change to a system at equilibrium will adjust to compensate for that change. In 1884 the French chemist and engineer Henry-Louis Le Châtelier proposed one of the central concepts of chemical equilibria, which describes what happens to a system when something briefly removes it from a state of equilibrium.It is important to understand that Le Châtelier'sprinciple is only a useful guide to identify what happens when the conditions are changed in a reaction in dynamic equilibrium; it does not give reasons for the changes at the molecular level (e.g., timescale of change and underlying reaction mechanism)