Question

How can a chemical equation be made more informative?

Answer 1

• A chemical equation is a short way of representing a chemical reaction with the help of symbols (formulae) of reactants and products involved in the chemical reaction.
• An arrow ( $\to$) pointing towards the right-hand side (i.e., towards the products) is put between the reactant and the products. This arrow shows that the substances written on its left-hand side (i.e., the reactants) react together and produce substances written on the right-hand side (products) of the arrow.

A chemical equation be made more informative by

• The physical state of each reactant and product should be mentioned in brackets:

(s) for solid, (l) for liquid, (g) for gas, and (aq) for the aqueous state.

• The concentration of reactants and products should be mentioned in the reaction as (dil) for dilute and (cone) for concentrated
• By adding the sign $\to$ for irreversible and for reversible reactions $\rightleftharpoons$ can be mentioned.
• Temperature, pressure, and catalyst should be mentioned in the chemical reaction.

For example:

$2{\mathrm{KClO}}_{3\left(\mathrm{s}\right)}\stackrel{}{\stackrel{{\mathrm{MnO}}_{2,∆}}{\to }}2{\mathrm{KCl}}_{\left(\mathrm{s}\right)}+3{\mathrm{O}}_2\left(\mathrm{s}\right)$