Why don't pure solids or liquids shift equilibrium?
1 Answer
Because their concentrations are essentially constant. Concentrations only change easily for things that
An equilibrium constant in standard conditions is written for, e.g.
#aA + bB rightleftharpoons cC + dD#
as
#K^@ = (([C]//c^@)^c([D]//c^@)^d)/(([A]//c^@)^a([B]//c^@)^b)# where these concentrations
#[" "]# are equilibrium concentrations.#c^@ = "1 M"# is the standard state concentration for aqueous solutions, i.e. at#25^@ "C"# and#"1 atm"# . This does not apply for pure liquids and solids.
PURE LIQUIDS
For pure liquids... if there is no solute in solvent... it must be a pure liquid and thus it has no true concentration. One might say its solute concentration is
We specify that its standard state is its molar density,
Thus,
PURE SOLIDS
It is even more true for solids. Again, we use the standard state of its molar density, and if you calculated a "concentration", that would match the molar density, i.e.
#(["solid"])/(["solid"]^@) = (["solid"])/(bar rho) = 1#
And it again does not vary.