Question

Now balance the chemical reaction by providing the correct coefficients:

carbon + fluorine gas yields carbon tetrafluoride?C+F2 → CF4 Enter
A) 1
B) 2
C) 4
D) 3.

Answer 1

Balance the equation for the reaction producing carbon tetrafluoride, a coefficient of 2 is placed in front of fluorine gas (F2), resulting in a balanced equation of C + 2F2 → CF4.

Step-by-step explanation:

To balance the chemical reaction carbon + fluorine gas yields carbon tetrafluoride, we must provide correct coefficients for each reactant and product. We start with the chemical formula: C + F2 → CF4. We need to ensure that there are equal numbers of each type of atom on each side of the equation.


In the product, carbon tetrafluoride (CF4), there are 4 fluorine atoms, but in the reactant side, there is only 1 molecule of fluorine gas (F2), which contains 2 fluorine atoms. To balance the fluorine atoms, we need to place a coefficient of 2 in front of F2, which gives us 2 F2 molecules, therefore a total of 4 fluorine atoms. This means that the complete balanced equation is:

C + 2F2 → CF4

Since there is one carbon atom on the reactant side and one carbon atom within CF4, no further changes are needed. Therefore, the balanced equation has the coefficients: 1 for carbon, 2 for fluorine gas, and 1 for carbon tetrafluoride.