Nitrogen dioxide gas is dark brown in color and remains in equilibrium with dinitrogen tetroxide gas, which is colorless. 2NO2(g) ⇌ N2O4(g)

When a light brown colored mixture of the two gases at equilibrium was moved from room temperature to a higher temperature, the mixture turned dark brown in color.

Which of the following conclusions about this equilibrium mixture is true?

This reaction is exothermic because the system shifted to the left on heating.
This reaction is exothermic because the system shifted to the right on heating.
This reaction is endothermic because the system shifted to the left on heating.
This reaction is endothermic because the system shifted to the right on heating.

This reaction is exothermic because the system shifted to the left on heating.

Explanation:

2NO₂ (g) ⇌ N₂O₄(g)

Reactant => NO₂ (dark brown in color)

Product => N₂O₄ (colorless)

From the question given above, we were told that when the reaction at equilibrium was moved from room temperature to a higher temperature, the mixture turned dark brown in color.

This simply means that the reaction does not like heat. Hence the reaction is exothermic reaction.

Also, we can see that when the temperature was increased, the reaction turned dark brown in color indicating that the increase in the temperature favors the backward reaction (i.e the equilibrium shift to the left) as NO₂ which is the reactant is dark brown in color. This again indicates that the reaction is exothermic because an increase in the temperature of an exothermic reaction will shift the equilibrium position to the left.

Therefore, we can conclude that:

The reaction is exothermic because the system shifted to the left on heating.