11.1: Reactants and Products

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Buffalo Wild Wings Manager Dies After Chemical Incident

When using cleaning products, it is important to understand the chemistry behind what occurs when certain chemicals are mixed together. To be able to predict what will happen when certain chemicals are mixed, you need to understand the parts of a chemical equation. Watch the following video.

https://youtu.be/VERCurM8q_E

When determining what products will form when chemicals are mixed, you need to know how to write chemical formulas and names. To begin, let's discuss ions. An atom is neutral when the number of protons equal the number of electrons in the atom. For example, if you have 5 protons which are positive and 5 electrons which are negative, the overall charge of the atom is 0 (5-5 = 0), but this is not always the case. If you have more or less electrons than protons, then the atom has a charge, and we call this an Ion.

Ion: An atom that has a positive (+) or negative (-) charge

Charges on an atom occur because of a loss or gain of electrons.

If an atom gains an electron it becomes an anion (negative charge)
If an atom loses an electron it becomes a cation (positive charge)

Cations: an ion with a positive charge.

Let's look at sodium. A neutral atom has 11 protons, and 11 electrons. If we have a sodium atom with a +1 charge, it must have lost an electron, and it now has 11 protons and 10 electrons, so sodium will have a plus 1 charge (see picture to the right). We can use the following equation:
Number of electrons = Atomic Number- Charge of atom

Anion: An ion with a negative charge.

Let's look at chlorine. A neutral atom has 17 protons, and 17 electrons. If we have a chlorine atom with a -1 charge, it must have gained an electron, and has 17 protons and 18 electrons, so chlorine will have a minus 1 charge (see picture to the right). We can use the following equation:
Number of electrons = Atomic Number - Charge of atom

We can use the periodic table to determine what the charge will be on each element.

Every element in the first column will have a +1 charge when it is an ion.
Every element in the second column will have a +2 charge when it is an ion.
Every element in the thirteenth column will have a +3 charge when it is an ion.
Every element in the Fourteenth column will have a +/-4 charge when it is an ion.
Every element in the fifteenth column will have a -3 charge when it is an ion.
Every element in the sixteenth column will have a -2 charge when it is an ion.
Every element in the seventeenth column will have a -1 charge when it is an ion.