Does entropy increase or decrease in the following processes?

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Question

Does entropy increase or decrease in the following processes?

2 SO2(g) + O2(g) → 2 SO3(g)

Accepted Answer

Welcome back, everyone does. The entropy of the following process increase or decrease where we have two moles of phosphorus trichloride react with one mole of oxygen gas to form two moles of phosphorus oxy chloride gas. We're going to begin by recalling that an increase in moles of our gas will correspond to an increase in entropy where entropy recall is represented by the symbol capital s. So notice that on the reactant side, given by the coefficient of two in front of phosphorus trichloride, we have two moles of gas plus the one mole of oxygen gas, which gives us three moles of gass on the reactant side, which we will compare to our product side. We're given by the coefficient of two in front of phosphorus oxy chloride, we have a total of two moles of gas on the product side. So ultimately, we have therefore decreased gaseous particles by the end of our reaction. And since our product side had a lower number of gaseous moles being only two moles versus our reactant moles, which had three moles of gas in total, this therefore corresponds to a decrease in entropy. So we have a negative entropy change. So our final answer is that entropy decreases from our given process. So our final answer is that entropy decreases. I hope that this made sense. And let us know if you have any questions.

Does entropy increase or decrease in the following processes? 2 SO2(g) + O2(g) → 2 SO3(g)

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