Chemical Reactions I

PS – 4.7, PS – 4.9
 State standards

• PS – 4.7 Summarize characteristics of balanced

equations (including conservation of mass and
changes in energy in the form of heat-that is,
exothermic or endothermic reactions).
• PS – 4.9 Apply procedure to balance equations for a
simple synthesis or decomposition reaction.
 Describing Chemical Reactions

• When a substance undergoes a chemical

change, a chemical reaction is said to take
place.
• We describe reactions by stating what was
present before the reaction (the reactants)
and what was present after the reaction
(the products)

Reactants 🡪 Products
 Describing Chemical Reactions
• Chemical reactions can be written as a chemical
equation.
• A chemical equation is a representation of a chemical
reaction in which reactants and products are
expressed as formulas
– Identify the reactants and product
C + O2 🡪 CO2
 Describing Chemical Reactions
C + O2 🡪 CO2
• We read this as, “carbon and oxygen
react to form carbon dioxide”
 Conservation of Mass
• The law of conservation of mass states that mass is
neither created nor destroyed in a chemical reaction.
– This is one of the most important laws in physical
science and always applies (…until we get to
nuclear chemistry)
• This means that the mass of the products is always
equal to the mass of the reactants.
• Another way to think about this is to say that we
have to have the same type and number of atoms on
both sides of the arrows.
 Conservation of Mass
• Right…
H2 + Cl2 🡪 2HCl
coefficient

• Wrong…
H2 + Cl2 🡪 2HCl + O2
(Where did that oxygen come from? It didn’t!)
 Balancing equations
• In order to show that mass is conserved during a
reaction a chemical equation must be balanced.
• You can balance a chemical equation by changing the
coefficients (the numbers that appear before the
formulas)
– Unbalanced…and wrong
H2O2 🡪 H2O + O2
(We seem to have gained an oxygen atom from nowhere. That’s wrong)
– Balanced…and correct
2H2O2 🡪 2H2O + O2
 Balanced equations
• Practice using coefficients
2Fe + 3Cl2 🡪 2FeCl3
• How many iron atoms are in the reactants?
• How many iron atoms are in the products?
• How many chlorine atoms are in the reactants?
• How many chlorine atoms are in the products?
• Is this equation balanced? (click here)
 Moles (not the animals)

• Because chemical reactions often involve large

numbers of small particles, chemists use a counting
unit called the mole to measure amounts of a
substance.
• A mole (mol) is an amount of a substance that
contains approximately 6.02 x 1023 particles of that
substance.
– For instance 6.02 x 1023 atoms or molecules
 Moles (not the animals)

• Molar mass is the mass of one mole of that substance.

• For an element, the molar mass is the same as its atomic mass
expressed in grams.
– Example: the atomic mass of a carbon-12 atom is 12 atomic mass
units (amu), so the molar mass of carbon-12 is 12.0 grams
• For a compound, you can take the molar mass by adding up the
atomic masses of its component atoms and then expressing the sum
in grams.
– Example: CO2 is one carbon and two oxygens.
• 12.0 amu for the one carbon and 16.0 amu for each oxygen
atom
• 12.0 amu + 16.0 amu + 16.0 amu = 44 amu
• So one mole of CO2 is 44.0g
 Questions?

Moles (the animals)

Questions?
 Balanced equations
• Answers to the practice problem
• 2
• 2
• 6
• 6
• yes
• Back to presentation