Introduction to Chemistry

By: Mahmoud Taha

Special thanks to Ms Williams and Ms Matrella for their constant
support and inspiration

Introduction to Chemistry
Please note that these guides are a collation of my personal notes, teachers' notes, chemistry
books, and websites such as chemguide, chemsheets, chemwiki and wikipedia.

Balancing Equations
You can balance an equation by inspection but some are very hard to solve that way.
Consider this equation, it looks impossible to solve by inspection, so we use algebra.

Place a letter as a coefficient beside each substance in the equation.

The equate the elements coefficients:

Sodium balance:

Chlorine balance:

Sulphur balance:

Oxygen balance:

Hydrogen balance:

Set x as 1, so the rest will be: x=1, y=1/2 , z=1/2 , w=1/4 , u=1/2 and w=1
Now multiply everything by 4 to get integers: x= 4 , y=2 , z=2 , w=1 , u=2 and w=4
Hence,

Mahmoud Taha

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Introduction to Chemistry

Valency / oxidation states

Elements
Element
GROUP 1
GROUP 2
GROUP 3
F
Cl
O
H
H in Metal Hydride

Oxidation State
+1
+2
+3
-1
-1 (Except in ClF and Cl2O)
-2 (Except in F2O and H2O2)
+1
-1

Polyatomic Ions :
Name
Phosphate

Formula (without charge)

PO4

Charge
-3

Sulphate
Carbonate
Dichromate

SO4
CO3
Cr2O7

-2
-2
-2

Hydroxide
Nitrate
Nitrite
Hydrogen carbonate
(bicarbonate)

OH
NO3
NO2
HCO3

-1
-1
-1
-1

Ammonium

NH4

+1

Solubility Rules
The Salt
Na, K & Ammonium salts
All Nitrates
Sulphates
Chlorides
Oxides/Hydroxides/Carbonates

Mahmoud Taha

Soluble
ALL

Insoluble
NO EXCEPTIONS

MOST
MOST
Na/K/
Ba2+, Sr2+, Ca2+ are considered
slightly soluble.

Pb/Ba/Ca
Pb/Ag
THE REST

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Introduction to Chemistry

Ionic Equations
1.Start with a balanced molecular equation.
2.Break all compounds with (aq) beside them into their ions:
-Indicate the correct formula and charge of each ion
-Indicate the correct number of each ion
3.Write (aq) after each ion
4.Bring down all compounds with (s), (l), or (g) unchanged.
2 Na3PO4 (aq) + 3 CaCl2 (aq) --> 6 NaCl (aq) + Ca3(PO4)2 (s)
6 Na+ (aq) + 2 PO43- (aq) + 3 Ca2+ (aq) + 6 Cl- (aq) --> 6 Na+ (aq) + 6 Cl- (aq) + Ca3(PO4)2 (s)

TO MAKE IT NET IONIC:

1- Cross out the spectator ions that are present.
2-Write the "leftovers" as the net ionic equation.
A simple way to remember it, is to write out ions which were aqueous and changed into
Solid, Liquid or Gas...or just vice versa

6 Na+ (aq) + 2 PO43- (aq) + 3 Ca2+ (aq) + 6 Cl- (aq) --> 6 Na+ (aq)+ 6 Cl- (aq) + Ca3(PO4)2 (s)
FINALLY
2 PO43- (aq) + 3 Ca2+ (aq) --> Ca3(PO4)2 (s)

The following picture is from chemsheets.co.uk :

Mahmoud Taha

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Introduction to Chemistry

Mole & Avogadro's Constant

1 mole is the mass of a substance that contains as many fundamental units as 12g of carbon12. One mole of anything has 6.02 x 1023 constituent particles. That huge number is
Avogadro's constant.
Mr (relative molecular mass) is the mass of one mole of the molecule in grams. We find out
the Mr of a compound by adding the Ar (relative atomic mass) of the elements present in that
compound.
Hence to find the number of moles in a given sample (say 10g of water) you use:
Mole = Mass of sample/Mr
Mr of H2O = 1+1+16 =18
Hence Moles of water in the sample = 10/18

Mahmoud Taha

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Introduction to Chemistry

Introduction to Stoichiometry Calculations

For ease of explanation I am going to use Amount of Substance Workbook from
chemsheets.co.uk
The tick means known and the question mark means unknown and the 3 dots in a triangle
means hence. Remember to convert your masses to grams.

Mahmoud Taha

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Introduction to Chemistry
The rest of the booklet covers limiting reagents, percentage yields, atom economy, reacting
gas volumes, solution calculations, titrations, empirical & molecular formulas. The booklet
can be opened here.
If the hyperlink doesn't open:
http://www.chemsheets.co.uk/Chemsheets%20AS%20008%20(Amount%20of%20substance)
.pdf
If you have any queries please contact me at mahtah1@gmail.com

Mahmoud Taha

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