Question

How do you balance double displacement reactions?

Answer 1

Hint The general concept of the chemistry which says that the number of moles of each atom in the reactant side should equal to that in the product side to balance the chemical equation regardless of any type of reaction it is and this concept will give you the required answer.

Complete step – by – step answer:
From the previous chapters of chemistry, we have dealt with the topics that come under the basic concept of chemistry which tells about how to balance a chemical equation.
Let us now see how to balance a double displacement reaction.
- The reactants are written on the left hand side of the reaction and products on the right hand side of the equation which is separated by an arrow that represents the reaction going from hand right to left hand side.
- Balancing of this chemical equation is nothing but making the number of moles of each atom on the reactant side to be equal to that of the product side.
- Double displacement reactions which are also called as the metathesis reactions occur when parts of two ionic compounds are exchanged making two new compounds.
To understand the concept, let us cite a simple example that is the displacement reaction between copper chloride and silver nitrate.
- The double displacement reaction of these two compounds in a simple way can be written as,
\[CuC{{l}_{2}}+AgN{{O}_{3}}\to Cu{{(N{{O}_{3}})}_{2}}+AgCl\]
Now, according to the concept of balancing the equation, the above example of a double displacement reaction can be balanced as,
\[CuC{{l}_{2}}+2AgN{{O}_{3}}\to Cu{{(N{{O}_{3}})}_{2}}+2AgCl\]
Therefore, the reaction is now in a balanced form. In this way, a double displacement reaction can be balanced.

Note: Note that the balancing of a chemical equation concept is common for any kind of reaction whether it is double displacement, displacement reaction, elimination reaction or may be a common reaction as well.