Question

How do you balance this reaction?
$Fe{{(N{{O}_{3}})}_{3}}+KSCN\to Fe{{(SCN)}_{3}}+KN{{O}_{3}}$

Answer 1

Hint: Chemical equation is the symbolic representation of a chemical reaction in which reactants and products are represented by their respective chemical formula. Reactants are always written on the left hand side while the product is on the right hand side.

Complete step by step answer:
Balancing of chemical equation involves the addition of stoichiometric coefficients to the reactants and products in such a way that there are the same number of atoms of each element on both sides i.e. the number of atoms in reactants are equal to the number of atoms in products. Equations can be balanced by using following steps:
1. First write the chemical formulae of the reaction if it is not given but in this case chemical formulae are given so first write the unbalanced reaction
$Fe{{(N{{O}_{3}})}_{3}}+KSCN\to Fe{{(SCN)}_{3}}+KN{{O}_{3}}$
2. Now compare the total number of each element on the both side like in the given reaction there are one $Fe$ atom on both sides, $K$ atom is also one on both sides whereas $N{{O}_{3}}$ and $SCN$ atoms are different on both side on reactant side there are three $N{{O}_{3}}$ atom and one is there $SCN$ atom is present while on product side we have only one $N{{O}_{3}}$ atom and three $SCN$ atoms.
3. Now stoichiometric coefficients are added to molecules containing an element which have different number of atoms on reactant side and product side and coefficients are added in such a manner that they balance the equation after that check the equation that number of atoms are same on both sides or not.
Hence the given equations balanced equation can be written as follows:
$Fe{{(N{{O}_{3}})}_{3}}+3KSCN\to Fe{{(SCN)}_{3}}+3KN{{O}_{3}}$

Note: Stoichiometric coefficient can be defined as that coefficient which describes the total number of molecules of chemical species which takes part in a chemical reaction and it also gives us information about the ratio of reacting species with the product in a chemical reaction.