Question

A sealed vessel containing carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and oxygen has a total pressure of 2.68 atm and partial pressure of 1.56 atm for oxygen and 0.65 atm for carbon dioxide. What is the partial pressure of carbon monoxide in atm?

Answer 1

According to Dalton's Law of Partial Pressure;

The Total Pressure of a mixture of gases is equal to the sum of the partial pressures of the individual gases.

Thus P(Total) = P_A + P_B + P_C.........+P_n

If we apply the law to our situation, then we will have;

P_(Total) = P_O2 + P_CO2 + P_CO

The unknown partial pressure is that of CO

Thus rearranging the equation becomes

P_CO = P_Total - (P_O2 + P_CO2)

PCO = 2.68atm - (1.56 + 0.65)atm

= 0.47atm