Ideal Gas Limitations

An ideal gas is visualised like where they collide, but other than that, there is zero interaction. In reality, that’s impossible, and that’s why ideal gases don’t exist. Nevertheless, engineers widely use it to understand the ideal gas approximations through the compression and expansion processes.Consider any gas; the state  equation is given by PV = nRT, which means except temperature, volume and pressure the specific internal energy doesn’t depend on anything else. It was initially found and noticed by the British physicist James Prescott Joule. For an inert gas, the formulation is exact, and for actual, it is a decent approximation, particularly at low pressures. The ideal gas equation is also known as the ideal gas law.

An Ideal gas equation is expressed as nRT = PV

• Where P denotes the optimum gas pressure. 
• The quantity of the inert gas is denoted by V.
• n means the ideal gas amount expressed in moles.
• The ideal gas law constant is R.
• The letter T denotes temperature.

Limitations Of Ideal Gas

Let’s assume you’re condensing an ideal gas. The gas should be able to be condensed to a volume of zero since the particles of a perfect gas have no volume. Real gas particles occupy space. When gas is condensed, it turns into a liquid state with volume. Because the substance is no longer a gas, the gas law no longer applies to it.

Real gas particles are attracted to one another. As the gas cools, its kinetic energy diminishes, causing the particles to move slowly enough to condense due to attraction forces. 

Examples Of Ideal Gas

Many gases, such as hydrogen, oxygen, noble gases, nitrogen, mixtures like air, and a few heavier gases like carbon dioxide, can be considered ideal gases with tolerable temperature and pressure limits.

Ideal gas laws govern the working of airbags in automobiles. When airbags are deployed, they immediately inflate with various gases. As the airbags expand, nitrogen gases are released. The nitrogen gas is created by reacting with a chemical called sodium azide.

How Does Ideal Gas Function

PV remains constant across an isothermal process for an ideal gas, according to the ideal gas law PV = nRT. An isotherm is a curve in a P-V diagram created by the equation PV = constant. The work done by the gas in an isothermal, reversible process is equal to the area under the relevant pressure-volume isotherm. The volume of gases absorbed can be calculated using the ideal gas law. The ideal-gas equation is widely used in chemical equations to convert between volumes and molar quantities.

Aspects Of Ideal Gas

• At constant temperature, the internal energy of an ideal gas is independent of its composition, i.e., (du/dV)T = 0, where u is the gas’s internal energy, V is its volume, and T is its temperature.
• There are no molecular forces at work. A perfect gas has no attraction or repulsion between its molecules. 
• Particles are massless point masses. In comparison to the value occupied by the gas molecules, the total value of the gas molecules in an ideal gas is negligible. We don’t consider particle size in ideal gases because the particles are so small compared to the space between them.
• The Kelvin temperature of a gas is measured by its kinetic energy. Although individual gas molecules move at different speeds, the temperature and kinetic energy of the gas are determined by the average of these speeds.
• The average kinetic energy of all gases at a given temperature is the same. A gas particle’s average kinetic energy is directly proportional to its temperature. The speed at which gas molecules move increases as the temperature rises.

Properties Of An Ideal Gas

The properties of an ideal gas are:

• A high number of similar molecules make up an ideal gas. In many aspects, an ideal gas differs from a real gas.
• Compared to the volume occupied by the gas, the volume occupied by the molecules is insignificant.
• The molecules move in a random pattern, obeying Newton’s laws of motion.
• The molecules are only subjected to forces when they collide; any collisions are fully elastic and take only a fraction of a second.
• The average kinetic energy of all gases at a given temperature is the same.
• Gas molecules that are lighter travel quicker than heavier molecules.
• The mass of an ideal gas can be ignored in the equation because it has none; this is because an ideal gas is referred to as a particle, which has no mass.

Conclusion

Gases are a challenging concept to understand. They’re packed with trillions of potent gas molecules, all of which have the potential to interact. Because accurately describing a real gas is challenging, the theory of an ideal gas was devised as a reasonable estimate to mimic and anticipate the dynamic behaviour of gases. In this article, we learned that Ideal gas molecules are neither attracted nor repellent to one another and do not take up space. We also discussed how there are no perfectly ideal gases, but there are many close enough that the concept of an ideal gas can.