Certainly! Let's write and balance the chemical equation for the combustion of acetylene (C₂H₂) using the general equation for combustion of a hydrocarbon:
Step 1: Write the unbalanced equation:
[tex]\[ \text{C}_2\text{H}_2 + \text{O}_2 \rightarrow \text{CO}_2 + \text{H}_2\text{O} \][/tex]
Step 2: Balance the atoms for each element one at a time:
- Carbon (C): Since there are 2 carbon atoms in acetylene (C₂H₂), we need 2 CO₂ molecules to balance the carbon atoms.
[tex]\[ \text{C}_2\text{H}_2 + \text{O}_2 \rightarrow 2 \text{CO}_2 + \text{H}_2\text{O} \][/tex]
- Hydrogen (H): There are 2 hydrogen atoms in acetylene (C₂H₂), so we need 1 H₂O molecule to balance the hydrogen atoms.
[tex]\[ \text{C}_2\text{H}_2 + \text{O}_2 \rightarrow 2 \text{CO}_2 + \text{H}_2\text{O} \][/tex]
- Oxygen (O): Count the total number of oxygen atoms on the right side: we have 4 oxygen atoms from the 2 CO₂ molecules and 1 oxygen atom from the H₂O molecule, resulting in a total of 5 oxygen atoms. Therefore, we need 5/2 or 2.5 O₂ molecules to balance the equation.
Since we prefer to have whole number coefficients, we multiply the entire equation by 2 to get rid of the fraction.
[tex]\[ 2 \text{C}_2\text{H}_2 + 5 \text{O}_2 \rightarrow 4 \text{CO}_2 + 2 \text{H}_2\text{O} \][/tex]
Now, the equation is balanced.
Balanced Combustion Equation:
[tex]\[ 2 \text{C}_2\text{H}_2 + 5 \text{O}_2 \rightarrow 4 \text{CO}_2 + 2 \text{H}_2\text{O} \][/tex]
Reactants:
- [tex]\(2 \text{C}_2\text{H}_2\)[/tex] (acetylene)
- [tex]\(5 \text{O}_2\)[/tex] (oxygen)
Products:
- [tex]\(4 \text{CO}_2\)[/tex] (carbon dioxide)
- [tex]\(2 \text{H}_2\text{O}\)[/tex] (water)
This provides the balanced chemical equation for the combustion of acetylene along with the labeled reactants and products.
