Answer to Question #292825 in Chemistry for Victoria

Question

Once a system has reached equilibrium, what happens to:

a) The rates of the forward and backward reactions

b) The concentration of the species present

Answer 1

The forward and reverse reactions continue to occur even after equilibrium has been reached.

At this point the rates of the forward and backward reactions become equal.

Because of that, there is no change in the relative concentrations of reactants and products for a reaction that is at equilibrium.