This web site is all about chemical reaction stoichiometry (CRS) - what it is and what to do with it.

Why have we created this site?

 

  1. to provide a widely accessible tutorial on CRS
  2. to provide a Java applet for implementing CRS
  3. to provide a resource site (literature and software) for CRS

What is CRS?

Let us begin with the three essential ingredients of CRS:

  1. the concept of conservation of types and amounts of atomic species during chemical change.
  2. the representation of chemical species by molecular formulas, and a list of the species involved in a system of interest.
  3. a simple means of solving the linear equations expressing conservation.

These ingredients are very simple, but have far-reaching consequences in all chemical phenomena. They are within the mental grasp of even a beginning student. No additional concepts or artifices are required.

The universal method described in this tutorial (MRM) will work for any CRS problem, and need not require the use of a computer. For convenience, we provide a Java applet on this site to implement MRM.

Required for what?

Required to generate a proper set of chemical equations to represent the stoichiometry of a reacting system of any degree of complexity. We provide a new Java applet on the site to achieve this.

What does the phrase "to represent the stoichiometry" imply?

It implies two things mainly:

  1. the chemical equations  generated act as constraints on the prediction of kinetics or equilibrium considerations about possible changes in the composition of the system;
  2. for calculation of any change in composition by means of the equations generated, the number of degrees of freedom (pieces of additional information required, outside CRS, e.g., from kinetics, thermodynamics or analysis) is equal to the number of such equations.

For Whom is this Web Site Intended?

Click on the appropriate link for specific guidance.

  1. A beginning student (first-year university/college, or final-year high school).
  2. An advanced university student (physical chemistry; material and energy balances)
  3. Instructors (teachers, lecturers, teaching assistants) of the above.
  4. Chemical practitioners (chemists, chemical engineers, geochemists, ...)

 

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