How to Create Chemical Reaction Symbols
- 1). Write down a list of the reactants and products of the reaction. What gets turned into what? For example, you might have a reaction between dissolved sulfur trioxide and water to form sulfuric acid, as follows:
Reactants: SO3 (dissolved), H2O (liquid)
Products: H2SO4 (dissolved) - 2). Write the formulas for the reactants on the left and the formulas for the reaction on the right. Then write an arrow like this between them: ----------> . If you know that the reaction is reversible (in other words, if the products can react to form the reactants), write a two-headed double arrow: <=> . Otherwise, write it with the single-headed arrow.
Example: SO3 + H2O ----> H2SO4 - 3). Write a subscript on the right-hand side of each reactant and product to indicate whether it is a solid, liquid, gas or solute dissolved in water. The symbols you will use are as follows:
(aq) = dissolved in water
(g) = gas
(s) = solid
(l) = liquid
Example: SO3(aq) + H2O(l) ----> H2SO4(aq) - 4). Write a triangle over the reaction arrow to indicate heat if heat is necessary to kick-start the reaction, and write an "hv" if light (ultraviolet, for example) is needed.
- 5). Write the catalyst (if one is needed) over the reaction arrow. In the case of sulfur trioxide, you do not need a catalyst; if you were adding hydrogen to ethene, however, you would want to write the symbol for the element platinum over the arrow. You can find the symbol for each element using the periodic table.
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