earthling77
Jun 8, 2009, 03:09 AM
How do you balance copper II nitrate to copper II oxide, nitrogen gas and O2 gas?
Perito
Jun 8, 2009, 05:24 AM
1. Start with getting the chemical formula of the products.
Copper(II) nitrate: Cu(NO3)2
Copper(II) oxide: CuO
Nitrogen gas: N2
Oxygen gas: O2
2. Create an equation with the reactants on the left and the products on the right:
Cu(NO_3)_2 \rightarrow CuO + N_2 + O_2
3. Balance the metals (primary reactants) first. Move down to other reactants putting oxygen and/or hydrogen (if present) last. In this case, Nitrogen then oxygen
Cu(NO_3)_2 \rightarrow CuO + N_2 + \frac 52 O_2
4. If you don't like the fraction (it's not really an error), multiply everything to get it out
2Cu(NO_3)_2 \rightarrow 2CuO + 2N_2 + 5 O_2