Aluminum can react with oxygen gas to produce aluminum oxide (#Al_2O_3#). What type of reaction is this?

1 Answer
Aug 16, 2017

This is a synthesis reaction.

Explanation:

We're given that aluminum (#"Al"#) can react with oxygen gas (#"O"_2#; don't forget it's diatomic!) to produce aluminum oxide (#"Al"_2"O"_3#).

The balanced chemical equation for this reaction is

#ul(4"Al"(s) + 3"O"_2(g) rarr 2"Al"_2"O"_3(s)#

A reaction in which two or more reactants combine to form only one product is called a synthesis reaction.

Here, there are two reactants (#"Al"# and #"O"_2#) combining to form one product, #"Al"_2"O"_3# (key word one), so this is a synthesis reaction.

Here is a useful image with more synthesis reaction examples:

i.ytimg.com