hydrogen peroxide can be used to disinfect and clean surfaces around the home. it breaks down over time into…
hydrogen peroxide can be used to disinfect and clean surfaces around the home. it breaks down over time into oxygen gas and water. consider the following reaction: some amount of hydrogen peroxide (h2o2) reacts to produce 1 molecule of oxygen (o2) and 2 molecules of water (h2o). use the number of atoms in the reaction to answer the question below. chemical element number of atoms in the reaction h 4 o 4 during this reaction, how many molecules of hydrogen peroxide (h2o2) react?
Answer
Explanation:
Step1: Analyze hydrogen - peroxide formula
The formula of hydrogen peroxide is $H_2O_2$, which has 2 hydrogen atoms and 2 oxygen atoms per molecule.
Step2: Count total atoms in products
The products are 1 molecule of $O_2$ (2 oxygen atoms) and 2 molecules of $H_2O$ (4 hydrogen atoms and 2 oxygen atoms). In total, there are 4 hydrogen atoms and 4 oxygen atoms in the products.
Step3: Determine number of hydrogen - peroxide molecules
Since each $H_2O_2$ molecule has 2 hydrogen and 2 oxygen atoms, and there are 4 hydrogen and 4 oxygen atoms in the products, the number of $H_2O_2$ molecules is 2. Because $2\times H_2O_2$ gives 4 hydrogen atoms and 4 oxygen atoms which match the number of atoms in the products.
Answer:
2