Final answer:
Methanol and oxygen undergo a combustion reaction to produce carbon dioxide and water vapor. The balanced equation for this reaction is 2CH3OH(l) + 3O2(g) → 4H2O(g) + 2CO2(g), representing how moles of reactants yield moles of products.
Step-by-step explanation:
Combustion Reaction of Methanol and Oxygen
The reaction between methanol (CH3OH) and oxygen (O2) is a typical combustion reaction, where methanol is the carbon-containing material that burns in the presence of oxygen to form carbon dioxide (CO2) and water vapor (H2O) as products.
To write and balance the chemical reaction equation, one can follow these steps:
Write the unbalanced equation with the correct chemical formulas: CH3OH + O2 → CO2 + H2O.
Determine the number of atoms for each element on both the reactant and product sides.
Adjust the coefficients to balance the atoms for each element.
Ensure that the total number of atoms for each element is the same on both sides of the equation.
For methanol combustion, the balanced equation is: 2CH3OH(l) + 3O2(g) → 4H2O(g) + 2CO2(g), which indicates that two moles of methanol react with three moles of oxygen to produce four moles of water and two moles of carbon dioxide.