Question

Liquid mercury can be generated by heating solid mercury (II) oxide to decomposition, releasing oxygen gas. 2HgO(s) 2Hg(l) + O2(g) If you place a specific amount of the solid mercury compound in a closed reaction vessel at a particular temperature and allow equilibrium to be reached, how could you then increase the formation elemental mercury? (select all that apply)

Adding more mercury(II) oxide.

Removing some oxygen.

Increasing the volume of the vessel.

Answer 1

By Removing some oxygen and increasing the volume of the vessel we can increase the formation of elemental mercury.

Explanation: Adding more mercury (II) oxide will not show any effect on equilibrium as solids do not have any effect on equilibrium.

removing oxygen will shift the equilibrium towards right side in order to increase the decreased amount of oxygen.

Increasing volume will decrease the pressure which will shift the equilibrium in that direction where the number of moles of gaseous reactants are high that is towards right side.