Question

Which of the following should have the largest Henry's law constant (kH) in water?

Answer 1

Answer: Option (B) is the correct answer.

Explanation:

It is known that Henry's law is a relation between the concentration of a gas in a liquid (solubility) and the pressure it exerts on the surface of the liquid.

According to Henry's law, the pressure of a gas is directly proportional to the solubility of the gas in a liquid.

Henry's constant is represented by the symbol $K_{H}$. And, mathematically it is represented as follows.

                      P = $K_{H}C$  

where,      P = pressure and C = solubility

As the pressure for the given species is the same. Hence, the standard values of solubility of the given species is as follows.

               Gas           Solubility

                Ar          $3.025 \times 10^{-5}$

               CO         $2.095 \times 10^{-5}$

               Xe         $10.519 \times 10^{-5}$

            $CH_{3}CH_{3}$   $4.556 \times 10^{-5}$

              $CO_{2}$   $8.21 \times 10^{-4}$

As, Henry's constant is inversely proportional to the solubility. Hence, more is the value of solubility lesser will be the value of Henry's constant.

Thus, we can conclude that out of the given options CO have the largest Henry's law constant ($K_{H}$) in water.