Chemical Equilibrium

Chemical equilibrium is the state in which the concentrations of the reactants and products have no net change over time. Usually, this state results when the forward chemical reactions proceed at the same rate as their reverse reactions. The rates of the forward and reverse reactions are generally not zero but, being equal, there are no net changes in any of the reactant or product concentrations. This process is known as dynamic equilibrium (Atkins & Jones, 2001). Fundamentally, reactions do not go fully to completion, but reach an equilibrium, because of the entropy of mixing associated with reaction.