Summary and uses The
standard pressure, P^0, is used to define the reference state for the Van 't Hoff equation, which is {{Equation box 1 where denotes the
natural logarithm, K_\mathrm{eq} is the thermodynamic
equilibrium constant, and is the
ideal gas constant. This equation is exact at any one temperature and all pressures, derived from the requirement that the Gibbs free energy of reaction be stationary in a state of
chemical equilibrium. In practice, the equation is often integrated between two temperatures under the assumption that the
standard reaction enthalpy \Delta_r H^\ominus is constant (and furthermore, this is also often assumed to be equal to its value at
standard temperature). Since in reality \Delta_r H^\ominus and the standard reaction entropy \Delta_r S^\ominus do vary with temperature for most processes, the integrated equation is only approximate. Approximations are also made in practice to the
activity coefficients within the equilibrium constant. A major use of the integrated equation is to estimate a new
equilibrium constant at a new
absolute temperature assuming a constant
standard enthalpy change over the temperature range. To obtain the integrated equation, it is convenient to first rewrite the Van 't Hoff equation as : \frac{d \ln K_\mathrm{eq}}{d \frac{1}{T}} = -\frac{\Delta_r H^\ominus}{R}. The definite integral between temperatures and is then :\ln \frac{K_2}{K_1} = \frac{-\Delta_r H^\ominus}{R} \left( \frac{1}{T_2} - \frac{1}{T_1} \right). In this equation is the equilibrium constant at absolute temperature , and is the equilibrium constant at absolute temperature .
Development from thermodynamics Combining the well-known formula for the
Gibbs free energy of reaction : \Delta_r G^\ominus = \Delta_r H^\ominus - T\Delta_r S^\ominus, where is the
entropy of the system, with the Gibbs free energy isotherm equation: :\Delta_r G^\ominus = -RT \ln K_\mathrm{eq}, we obtain :\ln K_\mathrm{eq} = -\frac{\Delta_r H^\ominus}{RT} + \frac{\Delta_r S^\ominus}{R}. Differentiation of this expression with respect to the variable while assuming that both \Delta_r H^\ominus and \Delta_r S^\ominus are independent of yields the Van 't Hoff equation. These assumptions are expected to break down somewhat for large temperature variations. Provided that \Delta_r H^\ominus and \Delta_r S^\ominus are constant, the preceding equation gives as a linear function of and hence is known as the
linear form of the Van 't Hoff equation. Therefore, when the range in temperature is small enough that the standard reaction enthalpy and reaction entropy are essentially constant, a plot of the
natural logarithm of the equilibrium constant versus the
reciprocal temperature gives a straight line. The slope of the line may be multiplied by the
gas constant to obtain the standard
enthalpy change of the reaction, and the intercept may be multiplied by to obtain the standard
entropy change.
Van 't Hoff isotherm The '''Van 't Hoff
isotherm''' can be used to determine the temperature dependence of the Gibbs free energy of reaction for non-standard state reactions at a constant temperature: :\left(\frac {dG}{d\xi}\right)_{T,p} = \Delta_\mathrm{r}G = \Delta_\mathrm{r}G^\ominus + RT \ln Q_\mathrm{r}, where \Delta_\mathrm{r}G is the Gibbs free energy of reaction under non-standard states at temperature T, \Delta_r G^\ominus is the Gibbs free energy for the reaction at (T,P^0), \xi is the
extent of reaction, and is the thermodynamic
reaction quotient. Since \Delta_r G^\ominus = - RT \ln K_{eq}, the temperature dependence of both terms can be described by Van t'Hoff equations as a function of
T. This finds applications in the field of
electrochemistry. particularly in the study of the temperature dependence of voltaic cells. The isotherm can also be used at fixed temperature to describe the
Law of Mass Action. When a reaction is at
equilibrium, and \Delta_\mathrm{r}G = 0. Otherwise, the Van 't Hoff isotherm predicts the direction that the system must shift in order to achieve equilibrium; when , the reaction moves in the forward direction, whereas when , the reaction moves in the backwards direction. See
Chemical equilibrium. ==Van 't Hoff plot==