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,
F2 , 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,
CaF2 , 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
F2(g)+Ca(s)→CaF2(s)
Is this chemical equation balanced?
As you can see, the reactants' side contains
- one atom of calcium,
1×Ca - two atoms of fluorine,
2×F
Since you can say the same thing about the product's side, the chemical equation is balanced.
