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Topic: Crazy Reaction! Where to start?  (Read 1845 times)

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Offline jessiscoolerthanu

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Crazy Reaction! Where to start?
« on: May 20, 2016, 03:26:54 AM »
Hello all! I've only taken gen chem, so apologies if this is even in the wrong forum!

I have the following reactants that I'm trying to mix (Cu(OOCCH3)2H2O + [CoCl2][(H2O)6] + C2H5OH + C3H6O2) with the hope of obtaining CuCo2O4 or Cu2CoO4 as a product. I'm considering that a possible reaction mechanism would be the following: {Cu(OOCCH3)2H2O + [CoCl2][(H2O)6] + C2H6O + C3H6O2 + NaOH + O2  -> CuCo2O4 + H2O + CO2 + NaCl + Cl2} (a comparable reaction added NaOH since the more alkaline pH helped to form precipitates; I wanted to test this too).

The following stoichiometric decomposition in terms of balanced subreactions gives the following for no NaOH added and no NaCl product:
3 C2H6O + 2 O2 -> 3 H2O + 2 C3H6O2
2 C3H6O2 + O2 -> 2 CO2 + 2 C2H6O
6 Cu(OOCCH3)2H2O + 12 [CoCl2][(H2O)6] + 40 C3H6O2 -> 12 Cl2 + 72 C2H6O + 43 O2 + 6 CuCo2O4

and the following subreactions for NaOH used:
3 C2H6O + 2 O2 -> 3 H2O + 2 C3H6O2
2 C3H6O2 + O2 -> 2 CO2 + 2 C2H6O
2 Cu(OOCCH3)2H2O + 4 [CoCl2][(H2O)6] + 16 C3H6O2 + 8 NaOH -> 8 NaCl + 28 C2H6O + 19 O2 + 2 CuCo2O4
6 Cu(OOCCH3)2H2O + 12 [CoCl2][(H2O)6] + 40 C3H6O2 -> 12 Cl2 + 72 C2H6O + 43 O2 + 6 CuCo2O4

However, I imagine trying to balance multiple reactions isn't as simple as getting the stoichiometric values and summing up all the equations to find a balance, limiting reagent, etc. There are differential reaction kinetics or other factors that drive certain reactions above over the others. As a chemistry neophyte, where do I start with all of this? Are there any resources of which I should be aware for how to predict reactions to this complexity?

Thank you for any and all support! =)

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Re: Crazy Reaction! Where to start?
« Reply #1 on: May 21, 2016, 03:27:42 AM »
C3H6O2

This can be any of multiple compounds.

My bet is that the ethanol (and perhaps the cryptic C3H6O2) is just a solvent and doesn't react.
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