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Topic: predicting products for chemical equations  (Read 1567 times)

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Offline tequilamargarita

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predicting products for chemical equations
« on: July 10, 2018, 07:10:31 PM »
I had a test with the problem __P4O7 :rarrow: _____ and I put 1P4O7 :rarrow: PO4 + PO3 + P2 as my answer but it’s wrong? So why is this wrong and how would you go about finding the right answer?

Offline Babcock_Hall

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Re: predicting products for chemical equations
« Reply #1 on: July 10, 2018, 08:01:50 PM »
Do those products exist?

Offline tequilamargarita

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Re: predicting products for chemical equations
« Reply #2 on: July 10, 2018, 08:14:13 PM »
ohh I looked it up so it’s because polyatomic ions can’t exist on their own?

Offline Babcock_Hall

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Re: predicting products for chemical equations
« Reply #3 on: July 11, 2018, 09:08:55 AM »
I am not entirely sure I know what you mean.  Na3PO4 exists (it is a salt), and it could dissociate into three sodium ions and the phosphate tri-anion, which should be written PO43- to show that it has a formal charge of minus 3.  But I never heard of a neutral chemical species PO4.

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