Chemistry Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for scientists, academics, teachers, and students in the field of chemistry. It only takes a minute to sign up. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. Is there a general way to predict products of a chemical reaction, given only the atomic masses of masses of all elements involved?
If there's no method to do so, are we supposed to memorize all chemical reactions? PS: In case you are writing the mechanism of chemical reactions, please bear in mind that products are not known beforehand. Often times it is possible due to previous data. Trends appear and you can make deductions from such trends. Reactions may not happen at all. There may be deviations from the trends as well. The deviations may be for unknown reasons or there may be unproven theories that are included in textbooks.
Inorganic chemistry reactions are not as clear cut as organic chemistry reactions. You don't have to memorize all the reactions. Know the trends, conduct the experiment, and if your prediction fails, try to think hard about the conditions in which the experiment took place. Sometimes the explanation may lay in the container that you used for the reaction, or it may be stoichiometry. There is some amount of reactions one have to memorize individually. However, there are classes of reactions that are quite broad and have uniform rules to check if some reactions happens.
Keep in mind that not all combiations of chemicals will result in a chemical reaction? All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. To order this book direct from the publisher, visit the Penguin USA website or call You can also purchase this book at Amazon. The Mole Says The tips in this section, while helping you to figure out what reaction might occur, aren't infallible in correctly predicting the reaction that will take place.
Bad Reactions There are two common mistakes when predicting the products of a chemical reaction. See also:. Chemistry: Getting Our Ingredients. In fact, if aluminum metal and chlorine gas are allowed to react, solid AlCl 3 is the predominant product. The synthesis reaction involving the non-metals hydrogen gas and bromine can be approached similarly. The product will contain both elements. Hydrogen, Group I, has one valence electron and will form one covalent bond.
Bromine, Group VII, has seven valence electrons and will form one covalent bond. The likely product is therefore HBr , with one covalent bond between the hydrogen and the bromine. For a single-replacement reaction, recall that in general metals will replace metals and non-metals will replace non-metals. For the reaction between lead IV chloride and fluorine gas, the fluorine will replace the chlorine, leading to a compound between lead and fluorine and the production of elemental chlorine.
The complete equation is shown below. In single-replacement reactions in which metals or carbon or hydrogen are expected to replace metals, first you should check the activity series to see if any reaction is anticipated. Remember that metals can only replace metals that are less active than themselves to the right in the Table.
If the reaction is predicted to occur, use the same general guidelines that we used above.
0コメント