Fundamentals H.11

[Brittney Hun 2C]

For question H.11 it states: "In a second stage, the Fe3O4 reacts further with carbon monoxide to produce solid elemental iron and carbon dioxide. Write the balanced equation for each stage in the process." For the first part I balanced the equation and got 2 moles of Fe3O4. Does this number of moles translate to the second part of the equation at the beginning?

[SarahSteffen_LEC4]

No, you would not carry the two over to the next equation because this is a completely new equation. Thus, recommend writing the new equation out without any stoichiometric coefficients initially and then balance if needed.

[christabellej 1F]

You would want to treat each step as separate reactions. This is because the products in these two reactions will likely be different, and you would want to make sure that your equation is balanced in that it has the same mass and atoms on both sides.

[Harry Zhang 1B]

This is not always the case, you would want to write a new equation without putting any stoichiometric coefficients that you got from the first equation because these stoichiometric coefficients are unique relative mole numbers in chemical equations. The moles of products you got from the first equation does not always translate into the same number of moles in the next equation since the stoichiometric coefficients in chemical equations represents the unique mole ratios in each unique chemical equations.