Fluorine gas is placed in contact with calcium metal at high temperatures to produce calcium fluoride powder What is the chemical equation for this reaction?
1 Answer
Explanation:
Your job here is to write a balanced chemical equation that describes this synthesis reaction.
The first thing to do is identify your reactants, which are the substances that get transformed in a chemical reaction. In this case, you have
- fluorine,
#"F"_2# , in the gaseous state,#(g)# - calcium,
#"Ca"# , in the solid state,#(s)#
Keep in mind that fluorine is a diatomic element, meaning that it exists as
Next, identify your product, which is the substance that is formed by a chemical reaction. For your reaction, you have
- calcium fluoride,
#"CaF"_2# , in the solid state,#(s)#
A chemical reaction features the reactants on the left side of the reaction arrow and the products on the right side of the reaction arrow. Place your substances accordingly to get
#"F"_ (2(g)) + "Ca"_ ((s)) -> "CaF"_ ( 2(s))#
Is this chemical equation balanced?
As you can see, the reactants' side contains
- one atom of calcium,
#1 xx "Ca"# - two atoms of fluorine,
#2 xx "F"#
Since you can say the same thing about the product's side, the chemical equation is balanced.
