Butane, C4H10 is burned completely in excess oxygen, write the balanced chemical formula for the reaction, name the products and type of reaction.

We need to think about the number of atoms of each element in the reactants and ensure these are the same in the products.

This is the basic UNBALANCED equation.

C4H10 + O2 ----> CO2 + H2O

So we have 4 C atoms on the left so will need 4 CO2 molecules on the right:

C4H10 + O2 ----> 4CO2 + H2O

Similarly we have 10 H atoms on the left so therefore need 5 H2O molecules on the right (as each H2O molecule has 2 H atoms)

C4H10 + O2 ----> 4CO2 + 5H2O

Now we just need to balance the O atoms. We have 8 + 5 on the right hand side = 13, as oxygen is present as O2 (ie two O atoms in each molecule) we therefore need 7.5 O2 molecules on the left hand side:

C4H10 + 7.5O2 ----> 4CO2 + 5H2O

or to keep in whole numbers,multiply everything by two:

2C4H10 + 13O2 ----> 8CO2 + 10H2O

The name of the products are CO2 = carbon dioxide and H2O = water. The type of reaction is a combustion reaction.

Answered by Callum J. Chemistry tutor

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