Stoichiometry and Chemical Reaction Essay

Submitted By twentyhundred
Words: 2929
Pages: 12

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Etymology [edit]
The term stoichiometry is derived from the Greek words στοιχεῖον stoicheion "element" and μέτρον metron "measure". In patristic Greek, the word Stoichiometria was used by Nicephorus to refer to the number of line counts of the canonical New Testament and some of the Apocrypha.
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Definition [edit]
Stoichiometry rests upon the very basic laws that help to understand it better, i.e., law of conservation of mass, the law of definite proportions (i.e., the law of constant composition) and the law of multiple proportions. In general, chemical reactions combine in definite ratios of chemicals. Since chemical reactions can neither create nor destroy matter, nor transmute one element into another, the amount of each element must ++be the same throughout the overall reaction. For example, the number of atoms of a given element X on the reactant side must equal the number of atoms of that element on the product side, whether or not all of those atoms are actually involved in a reaction.
Chemical reactions, as macroscopic unit operations, consist of simply a very large number of elementary reactions, where a single molecule reacts with another molecule. As the reacting molecules (or moieties) consist of a definite set of atoms in an integer ratio, the ratio between reactants in a complete reaction is also in integer ratio. A reaction may consume more than one molecule, and the stoichiometric number counts this number, defined as positive for products (added) and negative for reactants (removed).[1]
Different elements have a different atomic mass, and as collections of single atoms, molecules have a definite molar mass, measured with the unit mole (6.02 × 1023 individual molecules, Avogadro's constant). By definition, carbon-12 has a molar mass of 12 g/mol. Thus to calculate the stoichiometry by mass, the number of molecules required for each reactant is expressed in moles and multiplied by the molar mass of each to give the mass of each reactant per mole of reaction. The mass ratios can be calculated by dividing each by the total in the whole reaction.
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Converting grams to moles [edit]
Stoichiometry is not only used to balance chemical equations but also used in conversions, i.e., converting from grams to moles, or from grams to milliliters. For example, to find the number of moles in 2.00 g of NaCl, one would do the following:

In the above example, when written out in fraction form, the units of grams form a multiplicative identity, which is equivalent to one (g/g=1), with the resulting amount of moles (the unit that was needed), is shown in the following equation,

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Molar proportions [edit]
Stoichiometry is often used to balance chemical equations (reaction stoichiometry). For example, the two diatomic gases, hydrogen and oxygen, can combine to form a liquid, water, in an exothermic reaction, as described by the following equation:
2H2 + O2 → 2H2O
Reaction stoichiometry describes the 2:1:2 ratio of hydrogen, oxygen, and water molecules in the above equation.
The molar ratio allows for conversion between moles of one substance and moles of another. For example, consider the following equation:
2CH3OH + 3O2 → 2CO2 + 4H2O
If you are asked how many moles of water will be produced from the combustion of 0.27 moles of CH3OH, you must consider that the molar ratio between CH3OH and H2O is 2 to 4.

The term stoichiometry is also often used for the molar proportions of elements in stoichiometric compounds (composition stoichiometry). For example, the stoichiometry of hydrogen and oxygen in H2O is 2:1. In stoichiometric compounds, the molar proportions are whole numbers.
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Determining Amount of Product [edit]
Stoichiometry can also be used to find the quantity