Final answer:
The provided chemical equation PCl5 + 4H2O → H3PO4 + 3HCl is unbalanced because the number of atoms for chlorine, oxygen, and hydrogen do not match on both the reactant and product sides.
Step-by-step explanation:
The equation provided in the student's question is unbalanced. To verify whether a chemical equation is balanced or unbalanced, we need to ensure that the number of atoms of each element on the reactant side is equal to the number of atoms of that element on the product side. The given equation is:
PCl5 + 4H2O → H3PO4 + 3HCl
When we count the atoms of each element for the reactants and the products:
- Phosphorus (P): 1 atom on both sides.
- Chlorine (Cl): 5 atoms on the reactants side, but only 3 atoms in the products.
- Oxygen (O): 4 atoms on the reactants side, but 4 from the H3PO4 and additional oxygen from HCl; not balanced.
- Hydrogen (H): 8 from water on the reactants side, while products have 3 from the phosphoric acid and 3 from HCl, totalling 6; not balanced.
The correct balanced equation would involve adjusting the coefficients to balance both the atoms and the charges across the equation.