Question

What is the balanced equation for complete hydrolysis of ${\mathrm{XeF}}_6$.

Answer 1

Hydrolysis: Hydrolysis is a type of chemical reaction in which water is primarily used to break down chemical bonds which exist between a particular substance.

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, When ${\mathrm{XeF}}_6$ is completely hydrolyzed, it yields ${\mathrm{XeO}}_3$, which is xenon trioxide and hydrofluoric acid.
• The chemical reaction can be represented as:

$\underset{\mathrm{Xenon}\mathrm{hexafluoride}}{{\mathrm{XeF}}_6\left(\mathrm{g}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Water}}{{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}\left(\mathrm{l}\right)}\to \underset{\mathrm{Xenon}\mathrm{trioxide}}{{\mathrm{XeO}}_3\left(\mathrm{g}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Hydrofluoric}\mathrm{acid}}{\mathrm{HF}\left(\mathrm{g}\right)}$

Balancing the Chemical Equation:

Step 1: Write the number of atoms of each element

$\underset{\mathrm{Xenon}\mathrm{hexafluoride}}{{\mathrm{XeF}}_6\left(\mathrm{g}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Water}}{{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}\left(\mathrm{l}\right)}\to \underset{\mathrm{Xenon}\mathrm{trioxide}}{{\mathrm{XeO}}_3\left(\mathrm{g}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Hydrofluoric}\mathrm{acid}}{\mathrm{HF}\left(\mathrm{g}\right)}$

Element	Reactant side	Product Side
Xe	1	1
H	2	1
F	6	1
O	1	3

• From the table, it is clear that the atoms of hydrogen, fluorine, and Oxygen are not balanced.

Step 2: Balancing the unbalanced atoms

• In order to balance the equation, we will make the coefficient of ${\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}$ and $\mathrm{HF}$ as $3\&6$ respectively.
• Now the equation becomes

$\underset{\mathrm{Xenon}\mathrm{hexafluoride}}{{\mathrm{XeF}}_6\left(\mathrm{g}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Water}}{3{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}\left(\mathrm{l}\right)}\to \underset{\mathrm{Xenon}\mathrm{trioxide}}{{\mathrm{XeO}}_3\left(\mathrm{g}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Hydrofluoric}\mathrm{acid}}{6\mathrm{HF}\left(\mathrm{g}\right)}$

Element	Reactant side	Product Side
Xe	1	1
H	6	6
F	6	6
O	3	3

Hence, the balanced chemical equation is $\underset{\mathrm{Xenon}\mathrm{hexafluoride}}{{\mathrm{XeF}}_6\left(\mathrm{g}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Water}}{3{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}\left(\mathrm{l}\right)}\to \underset{\mathrm{Xenon}\mathrm{trioxide}}{{\mathrm{XeO}}_3\left(\mathrm{g}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Hydrofluoric}\mathrm{acid}}{6\mathrm{HF}\left(\mathrm{g}\right)}$