JEE Main 2025 — Chemical Equilibrium Question with Solution

When xenon gas, an inert gas, is added to the equilibrium system ${\mathrm{PCl}}_5(\mathrm{g})\leftrightharpoons {\mathrm{PCl}}_3(\mathrm{g})+{\mathrm{Cl}}_2(\mathrm{g})$ at a constant temperature and pressure, it affects the equilibrium according to Le Chatelier's principle. The addition of an inert gas at constant pressure effectively increases the volume of the system, reducing the concentration of the gases involved.

Since the system is at constant pressure, adding an inert gas increases the total volume, which favors the side of the reaction with more moles of gas. In this reaction, there are two moles of gas on the right side (${\mathrm{PCl}}_3$ and ${\mathrm{Cl}}_2$) compared to one mole on the left (${\mathrm{PCl}}_5$). Thus, the equilibrium will shift toward the right to increase the number of moles and counteract the change, decreasing the concentration of ${\mathrm{PCl}}_5$ and increasing the concentrations of ${\mathrm{PCl}}_3$ and ${\mathrm{Cl}}_2$.

However, due to the increase in overall volume, the individual concentrations of all species $\left([{\mathrm{PCl}}_5],[{\mathrm{PCl}}_3],[{\mathrm{Cl}}_2]\right)$ will decrease as a result of more space being available for the same amount of gas particles.