Write a balanced equation for the following reaction. Use whole number coefficients and subscripts as appropriate.
Carbon tetrachloride is an industrial liquid solvent. It is made by combining methane gas with elemental chlorine. These react to form carbon tetrachloride and hydrogen chloride gas
Mike, what is your trouble with this?
To write a balanced equation for this reaction, we need to make sure that there are an equal number of atoms of each element on both sides of the equation.
The given reactants are methane (CH4) and chlorine (Cl2), which react to form carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) and hydrogen chloride (HCl) gas.
The unbalanced equation is:
CH4 + Cl2 -> CCl4 + HCl
To balance this equation, we start by counting the number of atoms of each element on both sides of the equation.
On the left-hand side (reactants), we have:
1 carbon (C) atom
4 hydrogen (H) atoms
2 chlorine (Cl) atoms
On the right-hand side (products), we have:
1 carbon (C) atom
4 chlorine (Cl) atoms
1 hydrogen (H) atom
Balancing the carbon (C) and hydrogen (H) atoms is already fine, but we need to balance the chlorine (Cl) atoms.
To balance the chlorine atoms, we need to have the same number of chlorine on both sides of the equation. To do this, we can place a coefficient of 2 in front of the HCl on the right-hand side.
The balanced equation becomes:
CH4 + Cl2 -> CCl4 + 2 HCl
Now, both sides of the equation have:
1 carbon (C) atom
4 hydrogen (H) atoms
4 chlorine (Cl) atoms
Thus, the balanced equation for the reaction is:
CH4 + Cl2 -> CCl4 + 2 HCl