Final answer:
Balancing the chemical equation “C2H3O2Br + O2 → CO2 + H2O + Br2” involves ensuring the same number of atoms for each element are present on both sides, starting with the balance of carbon and hydrogen, followed by oxygen, and then bromine.
Step-by-step explanation:
When balancing the chemical equation C2H3O2Br + O2 → CO2 + H2O + Br2, we must ensure that the number of atoms for each element is equal on both sides of the equation. This is an example of a stoichiometry problem where we will balance the atoms of each element. We start by writing the unbalanced equation and assigning coefficients to balance each element in turn.
Looking at the given equation, we see that we must balance carbon (C), hydrogen (H), oxygen (O), and bromine (Br). We see that initially, we have 2 carbon atoms, 3 hydrogen atoms, 2 (from C2H3O2Br) + an unknown quantity from O2 oxygen atoms, and 1 bromine atom in the reactants. We need to achieve the same counts in the products.
Here's a step-by-step approach to balance this reaction:
- Balance carbon and hydrogen first, since they only appear in two types of molecules in the products.
- Balance oxygen, which is often left for last since it appears in most molecules.
- Finally, adjust the coefficient of O2 to balance the oxygen atoms.
As with the provided examples, we might have to use fractional coefficients and then multiply through by a common factor to obtain a balanced equation with integer coefficients.