Question

Write balanced chemical equations for the reaction where dry chlorine is passed over heated iron.

Answer 1

Hint: A chemical equation represents the substances that are involved in a chemical reaction i.e. reactants and products. The balanced chemical equation is the one that has the same number of atoms on both sides of a reaction. To balance the reaction, we can use the law of conservation of mass. Hit and trial method is used to balance the number of atoms on both, left and right side of the reaction. The mass of products in a chemical reaction must be equal to the mass of reactants.

Complete step by step answer:
The atomic number of irons is 26 and hence its electronic configuration is \[1{s^2}2{s^2}2{p^6}3{s^2}3{p^6}4{s^2}3{d^6}\]. Hence, the iron atom can achieve 2 oxidation states, viz. +2 and +3. The ion with +2 oxidation state is known as ferrous ion whereas the ion with +3 oxidation state is known as ferric ion
On the other hand, chlorine is a strong oxidizing agent.
So, when dry chlorine is passed over heated iron, iron will be oxidized by chlorine, as a result, ferric chloride is formed. The reaction is shown below.
 \[2Fe + 3C{l_2} = 2FeC{l_3}\]

Additional information:
When hydrogen chloride is passed over the iron, ferrous chloride and hydrogen gas are formed. The reaction is shown below,
 \[Fe + 2HCl = FeC{l_2} + {H_2}\]

Note: Iron is a d- block metal. The d block elements are found in the group 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 and 12 of the periodic table. These are also known as transition metals. The d orbital is filled with an electronic shell $n - 1$. There are a total of 40 d block elements.