Question

What is meant by skeletal type chemical equation? How can it be represented? Using the equation for electrolytic decomposition for water, differentiate between a skeletal type chemical equation and a balanced chemical equation.

Answer 1

Hint: The equation that just represents the reactants or the participants that take part in a chemical reaction is known as a skeletal chemical equation whereas when the number of atoms that take place in the reactions are balanced then it is a balanced chemical equation.

Complete Stepwise solution
To differentiate between the skeletal chemical equation and the balanced chemical equation, consider the case of electrolytic dissociation of water. Water is made of two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen the skeletal equation for the same can be written as follows:
 $ {{\text{H}}_{\text{2}}}\text{O}\to {{\text{H}}_{\text{2}}}\text{+ }{{\text{O}}_{\text{2}}} $
This equation simply represents the reactants that were involved in the reaction.
But to write the balanced equation we need to balance the mass of the reactants as well as the products and it is as follows:
 $ {{\text{H}}_{\text{2}}}\text{O}\to {{\text{H}}^{\text{+}}}\text{+ O}{{\text{H}}^{\text{-}}} $ (After dissociation)
Reaction at the cathode: $ 2{{\text{H}}^{\text{+}}}\left( \text{aq} \right)\text{+ 2}{{\text{e}}^{\text{-}}}\to {{\text{H}}_{\text{2}}}\left( \text{gas} \right) $
Reaction at the anode: $ \text{2O}{{\text{H}}^{-}}\left( \text{aq} \right)\to \dfrac{1}{2}{{\text{O}}_{\text{2}}}\left( \text{gas} \right)\text{ + }{{\text{H}}_{\text{2}}}\text{O + 2}{{\text{e}}^{\text{-}}} $
After balancing both the sides we get,
 $ \text{2}{{\text{H}}_{\text{2}}}\text{O}\to 2{{\text{H}}_{\text{2}}}\text{+ }{{\text{O}}_{\text{2}}} $
This is the balanced equation.

Note
When the atoms of two or more similar or dissimilar elements or the molecules of two or more similar or dissimilar compounds combine with each other to form a new compound or compounds as the products then the chemical reaction is expressed by an equation which is called the skeletal type chemical equation. But when the reaction takes place then the reactants combine in a certain ratio so that the mass of the atoms in the reactants as well as the products are equal and that equation is called the Balanced Chemical Equation.