Reaction Occurrences Every Day

Reaction Occurrences Every DayOne of the most difficult things for a chemist to understand is the chemical reactions that occur in everyday life. In fact, many of us are better at it than chemistry professors because we live in these processes every day. This means that it can be difficult to remember, let alone see, how reactions really work and why they happen in the way that they do.A simple example of a reaction is when one substance reacts with another. Let's look at some of these reactions that occur every day:Carbon dioxide is gas. When you get this gas out of the automobile, for example, it has changed from the solid state into the gaseous state. But just as a reaction happens between the materials in an automobile, so too do chemical reactions happen between gases and solids. Now, a metal like zinc or copper react with oxygen in air by forming a compound called chromium or nickel. This is called a metal-oxidizer reaction.When you add iron to tin, the tin becomes tin oxide. T hen tin oxidizes (changes into a brown metallic state) to tin. And just as a metal oxidizes in air, so too does the tin when added to other substances.If a tiny amount of iron is present in water, it will become iron sulfate. If the iron is very small and doesn't start to change or react immediately with anything else, it is a carbonate-alkali-acid compound.The absorption of carbon dioxide by nitric acid causes a chemical reaction. This reaction causes an alkaline metal to become a form of sodium metal, which has to be separated from the acid before it dissolves. The result is NaOH, which separates the nitric acid from the alkaline metal. There is a certain degree of stoichiometry involved here: a higher pH means a higher affinity for the acid, and sodium ions have a higher affinity for a higher pH.There are many more reactions that occur every day in your home. Some of them are quite common and also very easy to remember, while others are slightly less common but still useful. Let' s review the most common reactions, starting with some of the most important ones and moving on to more complex reactions.