chemical equation

(noun)

A symbolic representation of a chemical reaction; reactants are represented on the left and products on the right.

Related Terms

  • chemical formula
  • reactant
  • product
  • precipitate

Examples of chemical equation in the following topics:

  • Balancing Chemical Equations

    • A chemical equation is an expression of the net composition change associated with a chemical reaction.
    • Chemical equations often contain information about the state of the reactants: solid, liquid, gas, or aqueous.
    • Therefore, there must be the same number of atoms of each element on each side of a chemical equation.
    • A properly balanced chemical equation shows this.
    • The law of conservation of mass applies in all chemical equations.
  • Amount of Reactants and Products

    • Chemical equations are symbolic representations of chemical reactions.
    • Therefore, in a balanced equation each side of the chemical equation must have the same quantity of each element.
    • The relationship between the products and reactants in a balanced chemical equation is very important in understanding the nature of the reaction.
    • A chemical equation shows what reactants are needed to make specific products.
    • So the left side of the equation, $2\text{H}_2 + \text{O}_2$, has four hydrogen atoms and two oxygen atoms, as does the right side of the equation, $2\text{H}_2\text{O}$.
  • Writing Chemical Equations

    • A chemical equation expresses a chemical reaction by showing how certain reactants yield certain products.
    • A chemical equation is the symbolic representation of a chemical reaction.
    • A chemical equation consists of the chemical formulas of the reactants (on the left) and the products (on the right).
    • For equations involving complex chemicals, read the chemical formulas using IUPAC nomenclature, rather than reading the letter and its subscript.
    • Identify the symbols used to represent the states of matter in a chemical equation.
  • Thermochemical Equations

    • Thermochemical equations are chemical equations which include the enthalpy change of the reaction, $\Delta H_{rxn}$ .
    • A thermochemical equation is a balanced stoichiometric chemical equation which includes the enthalpy change.
    • The equations take the form: $A+B\rightarrow C,\: \Delta H =(\pm n)$
    • The equation takes the form:
    • The equation takes the form:
  • Molar Ratios

    • Chemical equations are symbolic representations of chemical reactions.
    • In a chemical equation, the reacting materials are written on the left, and the products are written on the right; the two sides are usually separated by an arrow showing the direction of the reaction.
    • Because the law of conservation of mass dictates that the quantity of each element must remain unchanged over the course of a chemical reaction, each side of a balanced chemical equation must have the same quantity of each particular element.
    • In a balanced chemical equation, the coefficients can be used to determine the relative amount of molecules, formula units, or moles of compounds that participate in the reaction.
    • For example, look at this equation:
  • Mole-to-Mole Conversions

    • A chemical equation is a visual representation of a chemical reaction.
    • In a typical chemical equation, an arrow separates the reactants on the left and the products on the right.
    • Therefore, a chemical equation is balanced when the number of each element in the equation is the same on both the left and right sides of the equation.
    • The next step is to inspect the coefficients of each element of the equation.
    • The chemical equation is $O_2 + 2\:H_2 \rightarrow 2\:H_2O$.
  • Chemical Reactions and Molecules

    • The substances used in the beginning of a chemical reaction are called the reactants (usually found on the left side of a chemical equation), and the substances found at the end of the reaction are known as the products (usually found on the right side of a chemical equation).
    • For the creation of the water molecule shown above, the chemical equation would be:
    • This is an example of a balanced chemical equation, wherein the number of atoms of each element is the same on each side of the equation.
    • The equations that describe these reactions contain a unidirectional arrow and are irreversible.
    • These situations of reversible reactions are often denoted by a chemical equation with a double headed arrow pointing towards both the reactants and products.
  • Reaction Stoichiometry

    • In order to make any stoichiometric determinations, however, we must first look to a balanced chemical equation.
    • In a balanced chemical equation, we can easily determine the stoichiometric ratio between the number of moles of reactants and the number of moles of products, because this ratio will always be a positive integer ratio.
    • However, we can only perform these calculations correctly if we have a balanced chemical equation with which to work.
    • Before performing any stoichiometric calculation, we must first have a balanced chemical equation.
    • In our balanced chemical equation, the coefficient for H2(g) is 1, and the coefficient for HCl(g) is 2.
  • Introduction to Chemical Reactivity

    • Now that we can recognize these actors ( compounds ), we turn to the roles they are inclined to play in the scientific drama staged by the multitude of chemical reactions that define organic chemistry.
    • Chemical Reaction: A transformation resulting in a change of composition, constitution and/or configuration of a compound (referred to as the reactant or substrate).
    • Reactant or Substrate: The organic compound undergoing change in a chemical reaction.
    • Reagent: A common partner of the reactant in many chemical reactions.
    • Catalysts are substances that accelerate the rate ( velocity ) of a chemical reaction without themselves being consumed or appearing as part of the reaction product.
  • Chemical Kinetics and Chemical Equilibrium

    • Chemical kinetics is the study of how quickly a chemical reaction occurs and what factors affect its rate.
    • The study of these factors and rates is known as chemical kinetics.
    • The reaction rate involves differential equations, but in non-mathematical terms it is simply the rate of change in the concentrations.
    • Instead, the reaction rate can be accurately modeled by a rate equation.
    • This is an example of a rate equation that might model the above reaction:
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