Question

Write the balanced chemical equations for the given reaction:

$\text{Barium chloride + Potassium sulphate → Barium sulphate + Potassium chloride}$

Answer 1

Balanced chemical equation: A balanced chemical equation is the representation of a chemical reaction in which the number of atoms of each element is the same on both the reactant and product sides.

Word equation to symbolic equation:

• In the given reaction, Barium chloride reacts with Potassium sulphate to form barium sulphate and potassium chloride.
• The chemical reaction can be represented as:

$\underset{\mathrm{Barium}\mathrm{chloride}}{{\mathrm{BaCl}}_2\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Potassium}\mathrm{sulphate}}{{\mathrm{K}}_2{\mathrm{SO}}_4\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}\to \underset{\mathrm{Barium}\mathrm{sulphate}}{{\mathrm{BaSO}}_4\left(\mathrm{s}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Potassium}\mathrm{chloride}}{\mathrm{KCl}\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}$

Balancing the Chemical Equation:

Step 1: Write the number of atoms of each element

$\underset{\mathrm{Barium}\mathrm{chloride}}{{\mathrm{BaCl}}_2\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Potassium}\mathrm{sulphate}}{{\mathrm{K}}_2{\mathrm{SO}}_4\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}\to \underset{\mathrm{Barium}\mathrm{sulphate}}{{\mathrm{BaSO}}_4\left(\mathrm{s}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Potassium}\mathrm{chloride}}{\mathrm{KCl}\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}$

Element	Reactant side	Product Side
Ba	1	1
Cl	2	1
K	2	1
S	1	1
O	4	4

• From the table, it is clear that the atoms of Chlorine and Potassium are not balanced.

Step 2: Balancing the unbalanced atoms

• In order to balance the equation, we will make the coefficient of $\mathrm{KCl}$ as $2$.
• Now the equation becomes

$\underset{\mathrm{Barium}\mathrm{chloride}}{{\mathrm{BaCl}}_2\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Potassium}\mathrm{sulphate}}{{\mathrm{K}}_2{\mathrm{SO}}_4\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}\to \underset{\mathrm{Barium}\mathrm{sulphate}}{{\mathrm{BaSO}}_4\left(\mathrm{s}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Potassium}\mathrm{chloride}}{2\mathrm{KCl}\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}$

Element	Reactant side	Product Side
Ba	1	1
Cl	2	2
K	2	2
S	1	1
O	4	4

Hence, the balanced chemical equation is $\underset{\mathrm{Barium}\mathrm{chloride}}{{\mathrm{BaCl}}_2\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Potassium}\mathrm{sulphate}}{{\mathrm{K}}_2{\mathrm{SO}}_4\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}\to \underset{\mathrm{Barium}\mathrm{sulphate}}{{\mathrm{BaSO}}_4\left(\mathrm{s}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Potassium}\mathrm{chloride}}{2\mathrm{KCl}\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}$