Final answer:
The student's question is about calculating the work done when sodium azide decomposes to produce nitrogen gas for an airbag deployment at given conditions, using the ideal gas law and the concept of work against constant external pressure.
Step-by-step explanation:
The student is asking how to calculate the value of work done by the system when a given mass of solid sodium azide reacts at certain conditions to produce nitrogen gas, which inflates an airbag. The reaction for the decomposition of sodium azide is: 2NaN3 (s) → 2Na (s) + 3N2 (g). This reaction produces nitrogen gas rapidly, inflates the airbag in a fraction of a second, and is a classic example of chemistry in everyday life and its application in automotive safety.
To calculate the work (w) done by the system when the gas expands against a constant external pressure at room temperature, we can use the formula w = -PΔV, where P is the pressure and ΔV is the change in volume of the gas. The pressure is given as 1.00 atm and the temperature as 22 °C, so we will need to convert the mass of NaN3 to moles, calculate the moles of nitrogen gas produced, and use the ideal gas law to find the volume ('V') it occupies. Then, we can calculate the work performed by the gas when it expands.