Write a balanced overall reaction from these unbalanced half-r...

Question

Write a balanced overall reaction from these unbalanced half-reactions. Cu ⟶ Cu²⁺ Ag⁺ ⟶ Ag

Accepted Answer

Alright, so here I'm going to be using the unbalanced half reaction that are given below here to write the balanced overall reaction. So obviously here we're dealing with redox reactions. Right? So we have bismuth and we have a product any um not an element that you usually see every day. So let's go ahead and check out what we have here. So we need to first make sure that the actual elements within the half reactions are balanced and they are we have one business on both sides and one protect any um on both sides. Now, the next thing that we need to check is the charges. Right? So for the first one we have positive three charge on the product side. And then of course this is just neutral. It's just zero on the reactant side. So we do need to actually balance those. And then the same thing here we have a positive four. And then here we have a zero charge. So let's go ahead and And work on the 1st 1. Alright, so to balance the charges were going to add electrons to the more positive side. Right, so here we have positive three versus zero. So we're going to go ahead and add how many electrons? Three electrons here. Right, because a positive three plus negative three will give us zero charge. Okay, now for the second one we have protect any um four plus one. And then here it is just zero charge. So again we're going to add electrons to the more positive side which is here and we need four electrons here in order to balance the charges between the two sides. Okay, so now, before we're able to add these two um half reactions together, we actually need to make sure that both of the half reactions contain the same number of electrons bought on opposite sides because we want the electrons to cancel out completely. So actually we do not have the same number. So we do need to take the first half reaction and multiply it by, we're going to multiply it by four and we're going to take the second half reaction and actually multiplied by three. Okay, so that way we're going to get the same number of electrons in both of the half reactions. 12 electrons. So now let's go ahead and rewrite these equations. Now, we're not only multiplying the electrons were multiplying the whole half reactions by these numbers, which means everything has to be multiplied by four. So for the first one we're going to have four. Oops, for B I He's going to give us four the I three plus and a force three times four is 12 electrons. Alright, so we can see here because we have electrons on the product side, this is going to be the oxidation reaction. Right, so for the next one we have um not one uh protect any. Um but we're gonna have three now. Right, so three PA four plus. And here we have four electrons times three, it's going to give us 12 electrons 12 electrons. And it's going to give us three P A. Okay, so notice here we have electrons on the reactive side which means it's a reduction. Right? So we have 12 and 12 on opposite sides. So that means they can cancel out. So the overall reaction, which is going to be our balanced overall reaction, is going to be which is going to go ahead and add everything together That we have left over it. So we have four for me, I plus three PA four plus. So that is it for the reacting side. Now, for the product side we have four BI three plus and then three P A. Okay. And then of course electrons we don't show in the overall reaction. That's why they canceled out. So this is going to be our balanced overall reaction for this redox reaction from these two unbalanced half reactions. That is it folks. Thank you so much for watching and we'll see you in the next problem

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