Hi!

I just made an experiment today. We had some liquids (Acid, bases, alcohols) and some solids (metals, salts) and we had to mix them, in order to find some gas-forming reactions. After finding them, we had the write the balanced equations and analyze the reaction.

We could also burn the solids (or the liquids) with a bunsen burner.

I decided to burn ammonia (NH3), Potassium Chlorate (KClO3) and sucrose (C12H22O11). My big question is : Is oxygen a reactant in the reaction, or only a product? Because, if it is, then is it possible to have the same exact element on both sides of a chemical equation?!

Example (not balanced but you get the idea):

KClO3(solid) + O2 (gas) = O2 (gas) + KCl (solid) ??
or
KClO3 (solid) + heat = O2 (gas) + KCl (solid)?

Same thing for sucrose and NH3.

Thank you!