change of pressure or volume when a diatomic gas is ionized?

unclejed613 said:

i'm usually pretty good at physics, but i am having difficulty finding an answer to this question:
when a diatomic gas (He2 for instance) is ionized in a fixed size container, does the pressure double (or more due to free electrons) from the dissociation to a monatomic plasma?
or... in a container with flexible walls, does it double it's volume?

it's logical that this would happen, but i can't seem to find any experimental or theoretical information about this.

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unclejed613 said:

i'm usually pretty good at physics, but i am having difficulty finding an answer to this question:
when a diatomic gas (He2 for instance) is ionized in a fixed size container, does the pressure double (or more due to free electrons) from the dissociation to a monatomic plasma?
or... in a container with flexible walls, does it double it's volume?

it's logical that this would happen, but i can't seem to find any experimental or theoretical information about this.

Click to expand...

Ratchit said:

Helium is not a diatomic gas at STP. It has a valance of zero. If it could be ionized, what difference would the mass of an extra electron or two added or subtracted to/from the mass of 2 protons plus 2 neutrons have? I would say the pressure change would be negligible.

Ratch

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