Introduction to Stoichiometry

STOICHIOMETRY

As we all know that chemical engineers in practicing their profession are differ from other engineers due to their involvement with chemistry. When chemical reaction occur, in contrast with physical change of material such as evaporation or dissolution, you want to be able to predict the mass or moles required for the reaction(s), and the mass or moles of each species remaining after the reaction has occurred.

Reaction Stoichiometry allows you to accomplish this task. The word Stoichiometry (stoi-ki-om-e-tri) derives from two Greek words: stoicheion (meaning ’element’) and metron (meaning ‘measure’). Stoichiometry provides a quantitative means of relating the amount of products produced by chemical reaction(s) to the amount of reactants.

As you already know, the chemical reaction equation provides both qualitative and quantitative information concerning chemical reactions. Specifically the chemical reaction equation provides you with information of two types:

1. It tells you that what substance are reacting (those being used up) and what substance are being produced (those being made).

2. The coefficients of a balanced equation tell you what the moles ratio are among the substances that react or are produced. (In 1803, John Dalton, an English Chemist, was able to explain much of the experimental results on chemical reactions of the day by assuming that reactions occurred with fixed ratios of element).

A chemical reaction may not occur as rapidly as the combustion of natural gas in the furnace, such as, for example, in the slow oxidation of your food, but if the reaction occurs (or would occur), it takes place as represented by a chemical reaction equation.

‘This is the theory part that we have discussed in this article. If you have any type of problem regarding stoichiometry and its concept, do let me know in the comment section below.’

In the next Article, we will discuss ‘How to solve a Stoichiometry problem.’