Describe the conditions used in the Haber Process and explain briefly why they are used.

The forwards direction of the Haber Process is exothermic, thus in accordance with La Chatelier's Principle a lower temperature will lead to an increased yield of ammonia. However a low temperature will lead to a very slow rate of reaction, thus a compromise is used of 400 degrees celcius. The 'product side' of the reaction has fewer moles of gas and thus a higher pressure for the reaction will favour the formation of ammonia, however these high pressures are expensive to create and control thus a pressure of 200atm is used in industry. An iron metal catalyst is also used for the reaction, which increases the speeds of both the forwards and backwards reactions equally but does not affect the yield of ammonia formed.