Reactions Notes IanGunch
Reactions Notes IanGunch
Chemical Reactions:
Chemical reactions are processes in which the atoms of one or more substances are
rearranged to form different chemical compounds.
Formation of a gas / bubbling, as when vinegar and baking soda are mixed.
Overall, the most important thing to remember is that a chemical reaction produces a whole
new chemical compound. Just changing the way that something looks (breaking, melting,
dissolving, etc) isn’t enough to qualify something as a chemical reaction!
Things to keep in mind when looking at the recipes for chemical reactions:
1) The stuff before the arrow is referred to as the “reactants” or “reagents”, and the stuff
after the arrow is called the “products.”
2) The number of atoms of each element is the same on both sides of the arrow.
Even though there may be different numbers of molecules, the number of atoms of
each element needs to remain the same to obey the law of conservation of mass.
3) The numbers in front of the formulas tell you how many molecules or moles of each
chemical are involved in the reaction.
When working on chemical recipes, it’s important to figure out how much stuff we’ll need to
make the stuff we need, and it’s important to figure out how much stuff we’ll make. To make
this work, we take the ingredients and products and generate a list of how many of each we’ll
need. This is called “balancing equations”, and it ensures that we obey the law of conservation
of mass.
How to do this:
1) Draw boxes around the molecular formulas of the ingredients. Never change
anything inside the boxes, EVER!
Reason: You can’t change the formulas of the compounds that you’re working with, or
you’ll mess up the recipe!
2) Make a table that shows the number of atoms of each element before and after
the arrow.
3) Equations are balanced when both columns are the same, because that means
that the amount of stuff you make is exactly the same as the amount of stuff you
started with. To do this, put numbers in front of each box to multiply the number
of atoms inside of it.
How do you know what to put? You don’t, but can make a guess based on the “before”
and “after” columns.
5) Keep adding numbers in front of boxes until the two columns in your inventory
match. Then you’re done!
Handy tips:
If you can’t figure out the problem, start over!
o There are a lot of steps and it’s easy to make a mistake at first.
If you can’t solve the equation because things are too weird, put a “2” in front of
the most complicated looking molecule and start over.
o If this doesn’t work, put a “3” there instead.
If you can reduce coefficients, do it!
Completing the Chemical Recipes Notes:
So far, we’ve seen how to list the ingredients for a chemical recipe. However, as we already
know, the ingredients aren’t enough to figure out how to make something in the kitchen. In
addition, you also need to figure out how you need to prepare the ingredients into the desired
product. In chemistry, these are referred to as reaction conditions.
1) Symbols of state: These tell you whether something is a solid, a liquid, a gas, or
dissolved in water:
2) Symbols used around the arrow tell you what conditions you need to meet for the
reaction to occur:
v
Example: C6H12(l) + 9 O2(g) 6 CO2(g) + 6 H2O(g)
3) “ H” after the equation indicates the amount of energy that is absorbed or given off
during a reaction.
If H is positive, it’s an endothermic reaction, which means it absorbs energy and feels
cold.
If H is negative, it’s an exothermic reaction, which means it gives off energy and gets
hot.
c
Example: 2 H2(g) + O2(g) 2 H2O(g) H = -572 kJ/mol
6 Types of Chemical Reaction Notes (show reactions when doing):
General: A + B AB
General: AB B + A
General: A + BC AC + B
General: AB + CD AD + CB
1) Does your equation contain oxygen, carbon dioxide, AND water? If so, it’s a
combustion reaction.
4) Are any elements present by themselves? If so, it’s a single replacement reaction.
5) Is water formed?
YES – Acid-base reaction.
NO – Double replacement reaction.
Honors Only: Predicting Reaction Products Notes
It’s frequently handy to know what will be formed when two chemicals are put together. After
all, the whole point of chemistry is to produce useful chemicals for various purposes, and it
doesn’t do us much good if we can’t figure out how to do it.
Combustion reactions:
Identification: Whenever you see CxHy reacting with O2.
Products: CO2, H2O, and heat. (Example)
Synthesis reactions:
Identification: If two elements or VERY simple molecules are reacting with each other,
it’s probably a synthesis reaction.
o Elements usually combine to form ionic compounds. (Example)
o Simple covalent molecules usually combine to form more complex covalent
molecules (Example)
Products:
o If an ionic compound will be formed, wing it based on the possible products.
(Examples)
o If a covalent compound is formed, it’ll usually be something that you’ve seen
before. (Examples)
Decomposition reactions:
Identification: If one compound has an arrow coming off of it, it’s decomposing.
Products: The products will be either simple covalent molecules (water, CO2, O2, N2,
etc) or the constituent elements (if you can’t figure out what simple molecules might be
present).
o Show examples of each.
Single replacement reactions:
Identification: A single element (either a metal or halogen) reacts with. Coming up
with products at this point should be simple.
The big question: Will a reaction take place at all?
o Look at the activity series on p. 288 of the book. If the lone element is higher
than the element that it’s trying to replace, the reaction will proceed. Otherwise,
it will not.
o Examples:
Li + NaOH LiOH + Na reaction will occur.
Zn + Ca(OH)2 Zn(OH)2 + Ca will not occur.
In reality, all of these compounds are soluble in water, so the reaction would actually be:
Which is exactly the same on both sides. The only way we can get around this is to have one
of our products be insoluble in water.
Our big question: How do we know if one of our products will be soluble in
water?
o Look at a solubility table. Check both expected products and see which (if either)
will actually be made.
o Have them do a big example: MgCl2 + NaOH ?
Net ionic equation: When we only show the ions that actually combine to form our
product.
o The ions that don’t form product are referred to as spectator ions, since they
don’t change over the course of the reaction.
K3PO4 + Ba(OH)2