Can you please help balance this equation?
Copper (I) sulfide reacts with O2 to produce a coper metal and sulfur dioxide
Cu2S + O2 ==> 2Cu + SO2
Looks easy enough to me. My guess: you didn't use the right formula for Cu2S.
Certainly! To balance the chemical equation, we need to make sure that the number of atoms of each element is the same on both sides of the equation.
The unbalanced equation is:
Cu2S + O2 -> Cu + SO2
Let's start by counting the number of atoms for each element on both sides of the equation:
On the left side (reactants):
- Copper (Cu) has 2 atoms
- Sulfur (S) has 1 atom
- Oxygen (O) has 2 atoms
On the right side (products):
- Copper (Cu) has 1 atom
- Sulfur (S) has 1 atom
- Oxygen (O) has 2 atoms
Now, let's balance the equation by adjusting the coefficients in front of each compound:
Cu2S + O2 -> 2Cu + SO2
Now, let's count the atoms again:
On the left side (reactants):
- Copper (Cu) has 2 atoms
- Sulfur (S) has 1 atom
- Oxygen (O) has 2 atoms
On the right side (products):
- Copper (Cu) has 2 atoms
- Sulfur (S) has 1 atom
- Oxygen (O) has 2 atoms
Now, the number of atoms is balanced on both sides, and the balanced equation is:
Cu2S + O2 -> 2Cu + SO2