There are lots of different types of chemical reactions.
Classifying these reactions is important because it allows scientists to observe what the reactants are and what role they play to make the products.
Reactants are the chemicals that form the product.
Products are the chemicals formed by the reactants.
The chemical reactions can be classified as follows:
Synthesis Reactions
Synthesis reactions contain 2 or more small substances that combine to form a larger compound.
As you can see in the picture above, hydrogen and oxygen combine to form water.
The water is the product formed by the two reactants, hydrogen and oxygen.
A + B --> AB
Decomposition Reaction
Decomposition reactions occur when one larger chemical breaks down into two or more smaller chemicals. Decomposition reactions also generally require heat as a reactant to produce the products.
Based on the above picture, you can see that the chemical compound NaCl breaks down into the elements Na and Cl.
AB --> A + B
Combustion Reactions
Combustion reactions have oxygen as a reactant and they must form carbon dioxide and water. Usually, but not always, the reactants contain a hydrocarbon.
A hydrocarbon is a compound made with carbon atoms and hydrogen atoms.
As you can see in the above chemical reaction, the hydrocarbon and oxygen react to form carbon dioxide and water.
Precipitation Reactions
Precipitation reactions is a bit of a tricky one. These reactions "swap partners". An easy formula I find to help me with this concept is AB + CD --> AD + CB. These reactions are also called "double replacement reactions".
Another important thing to note about precipitation reactions is that the two reactants must be aqueous and the products must contain at least one precipitate.
Aqueous is a fancy name for the state of matter, liquid.
A precipitate is a solid that has been formed in a precipitation reaction.
In this equation, sodium fluoride and silver nitrate are the reactants, swapping partners to form the products, silver fluoride and sodium nitrate.
Acid - Base Neutralization Reactions
The last and final of the five, acid - base neutralization reactions have reactants as one acid and one base.
An acid is a compound with hydrogen bonded to an anion.
A base is a compound with hydroxide bonded to a cation.
This reaction is also a "double replacement reaction", taking the form AB + CD --> AD + CB.
The products are water and a salt.
In the above chemical reaction, the hydrogen chloride (acid) and sodium hydroxide (base) react to produce water and salt.
That is it for the different types of chemical reactions. I hope this post was helpful to you!
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