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8: Chemical Reactions

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    501329
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    • 8.1: Introduction to Chemical Reactions
    • 8.2: The Chemical Equation
      A chemical reaction is the process in which one or more substances are changed into one or more new substances. Chemical reactions are represented by chemical equations. Chemical equations have reactants on the left, an arrow that is read as "yields", and the products on the right.
    • 8.3: How to Write Balanced Chemical Equations
      In chemical reactions, atoms are never created or destroyed. The same atoms that were present in the reactants are present in the products—they are merely reorganized into different arrangements. In a complete chemical equation, the two sides of the equation must be present on the reactant and the product sides of the equation.
    • 8.4: Aqueous Solutions and Solubility - Compounds Dissolved in Water
      When ionic compounds dissolve in water, the ions in the solid separate and disperse uniformly throughout the solution because water molecules surround and solvate the ions, reducing the strong electrostatic forces between them. This process represents a physical change known as dissociation. Under most conditions, ionic compounds will dissociate nearly completely when dissolved, and so they are classified as strong electrolytes.
    • 8.5: Precipitation Reactions
      A precipitation reaction is a reaction that yields an insoluble product—a precipitate—when two solutions are mixed. Thus precipitation reactions are a subclass of exchange reactions that occur between ionic compounds when one of the products is insoluble. Because both components of each compound change partners, such reactions are sometimes called double-displacement reactions.
    • 8.6: Writing Chemical Equations for Reactions in Solution- Molecular, Complete Ionic, and Net Ionic Equations
      Precipitation is a process in which a solute separates from a supersaturated solution. In a chemical laboratory, precipitation usually refers to a solid crystallizing from a liquid solution, but in weather reports it applies to liquid or solid water separating from supersaturated air.
    • 8.7: Some Types of Chemical Reactions
      Although there are untold millions of possible chemical reactions, most can be classified into a small number of general reaction types. Classifying reactions has two purposes: it helps us to recognize similarities among them, and it enables us to predict the products of certain reactions. A particular reaction may fall into more than one of the categories that we will define in this book.
    • 8.8: Oxidation-Reduction (Redox) Reactions
      Chemical reactions in which electrons are transferred are called oxidation-reduction, or redox, reactions. Oxidation is the loss of electrons. Reduction is the gain of electrons. Oxidation and reduction always occur together, even though they can be written as separate chemical equations.

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