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On the Fugacity of a Van der Waals Gas An Approximate Expression That Separates Attractive and Repulsive Forces Luclano D’Alessio Dipariimonto di Chimica, Universita degli Stucl di oma “La Sepienza”, 00186 Rome, Italy ‘The fugacity is one of the most important and usefalleon- ‘cepts in physical chemistry, and much atiention is devored to illustrating it in graduate courses to avoid miaunder- i, Nevertheless, it often remains rather obscure, rome numerical ealeulation is carried out to demonstrate how it works and to show whet information it, ives. In the prosont popor I skoteh a eimple and straight forward derivation of the fugacity of a Van der Waals (VaW) gas, using a little mathomatics with come feel for the physics. Ina previous article Cce (1) presented a computer iters- tive algorithm to caleulate the value for the fugaeity of a VaW gas. More revently Winn (2) described how an exact, expression for the VaW fugacity: can he derived, but caleus lations at any one state point (expressed by only P and 7) ‘require the solution of the cubie eqnation of state to find the molar volume. Although these procedures are valuable from the mathematies! point of view, they tell nothing about the physical meaning of the results. Thus, they give ‘the stadent the impression that fugacity is semething mys terious that suddenly arises from the algebraic manipule- {on of formulas ‘An Alternative Approach ‘Toillustrate the physies of the matter, we propose an al. ternative approach to the calculation of the fugacity of a VaW gas. Our approach lends to an sppreximate expres ssioa that separately analyzes the effects of the atiractive ‘and repulsive interactions between gas particles. The re quited algebra is rather plain, and the calculation may be performed eesily on 2 nonpregraramable peeket calculator In addition, the formuls can be written in « dimensionless form using the reduced coordinates that satisfy the law of corresponding states. Thus, this form holds for all gesee, regardless of their chemieal nature ‘We use a suitable expression for the compressibility fac. tor, where V is the molar volume, ‘This gives us a closed formula for the fagacity coefficient, af mp wi tle fre tho eal ilar the isn eiabe tos mn (Carrying Out the Integraton A Viriel Fxpension We recall thatiin the VaW equation of state fora real gas [ov Sw -w)-0 vee @ 96 Journal of Chemical Education the parameters « and b account for the molecular attrac: dons and repalsions, respectively. ‘Therefore, our goal ia to exprose the fugacity as a fune- ton of these parameters, in addition to 7 snd P. Th do this, ‘ve can expand the VaW equation of state in a virial form in order ta express the comapressibility factor in a manner suitable to caleulating the integral in eq 1. ‘From eq 2 we obsain using the following second-order expansion. 1 2 pigehtee Obtoining Power Series for Volume and Pressure The obtained equation is a second-order virial expansion ‘of tho aquation of state, expreseed an the following power series of the volume. there and ‘The corresponding power series of pressure, in the same order of approximation, would ke the following. 214 RP CP provided Bb a REO RP pepe and 0-8 tab ot ee Rn Bre ‘The power series of pressure cen then used to carry out the integration, to give the following result e 2 \p 1 mabe? Ips) 4 oltre ee ee?) Uses of the Second-Order Approximation ‘This is our second-order approximation for the figacity of @ VaW gas. This formula can be used Wo calculate the fagacity as a fanction of Pand P when high pracision is not required. In addition, when itis plotied against P for any iBiven tomperature, st shows the true qualitative behavior fof the fugacity coefficient of @ real gas. Due to the various ‘approximations invalved in the derivation of eq, it should give the true value only at low pressures ‘As an example, as shown by Wina, if we compute, the Fugacity of Ny (a = 2.81 L? atm mol; b = 0.0129 L mol") at P= 70 alm and T= 350 K, we obtain f= 68.4 aim with a relative error of only 0.5% from the exact value. However, one must remember that the VaW approximation for areal {genie very bad at high pressures. In fact, the true furacity Of Nels TLS atm at this state point. First Order Approximation Although eq 3 is not particularly simple, it has the ad~ vantage of not requiring the calculation of Che molar vol- lume. A first order approximation may be obtained by ne- ‘lecting the square term in the exponent. rene} | © “This simple expression clearly shows the role that the \ValW parcmeters a ard b play in determining the fugacity. High Pressure For instance, ifone is intereated in etudying only the r=- pulsion effect, which occurs when PS ¥ theme approxiate qastion ofstate may Deobtained hy cen nv-b-at “Te corresponding “pulser guy ete na olf 6 hy esting a= 0, one asin the oguaton tate fro eee es Scot a test roe fancy of it ‘gas, as seen by dizect integration of the corresponding com. ressibility factor, % 15 (i lear on ¢ inet oT then the grrnrnding en er ge gee Saloon Low Pressure ‘Moreover, when Poet Rr the exponential can be expanded to give the low-pressure approximation for the hard-sphere gas. oon BE ar)" Re ‘To consider the effects of the molecular aitractions, which bosame significant when V's» b, we set =Oin ead, and we obtain the “attraction” fugacity coefficient tear now dealing with nequton fat he form ne eran Thisie an approsinatin he VAW equvon has valid ae ener ac taca ierboleadar distances Soa ee ae ee Fee a scene is chet oleae ara ioe a a oe eee oS crs re aedthe haga ionor tan te free The Ovo Papacy hc emergence of th via em ofthe equstion of oie ee oe Mie ede Sa te blowing pokes Tse overall gay of he gt mas bo ntrpetd aoa er i a gad acon ‘The above exprossions qualitatively illustrate the role that the intermolecular forces play in relation to the Uaer- ‘modynamie behavior ofa real gas. When went the repulsion effect dominates, and /> P. Conversely, when whel attractions dominate, and f

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