Le Châtelier’s Principle and Addition of Water With regards to gas volume, Le Châtelier’s principle predicts that an increase in the volume of the container causes the system to favor the side of the reaction that produces more moles of gas. However, would this principle apply equally well to an aqueous system, at equilibrium, that has now had water added to it? That would be analogous to expanding the volume of a gaseous system, wouldn’t it? Would adding water to an aqueous system at equilibrium affect the position of equilibrium at all?
Yes adding more water will affect the position of the equilibrium simply because you are adding more volume to the solution by adding more water. So adding volume is inversely proportional to pressure where the system needs to reduce the amount of water. Then the equilibrium will shift to the side with increased amount of pressure.