Chapter 7, Problem 15A

Interpretation Introduction

Interpretation:

The unbalanced chemical equation corresponding to the production of elemental boron from diboron trioxide and magnesium metal needs to be presented.

Concept Introduction:

• A chemical reaction is expressed as a chemical equation having reactants and products on left and right side of the reaction arrow respectively.

  $\text{Reactants }\to \text{ Products}$

• It also gives the physical state (solid (s), liquid (l), gas (g)) and the amount of reactants and products involved in the reaction.

Answer to Problem 15A

  ${\text{B}}_{\text{2}}{\text{O}}_3\text{(s) + Mg(s) }\to \text{ B (s) + MgO(s) }$

Explanation of Solution

The given process involves the reaction between diboron trioxide solid with metallic magnesium to form elemental boron and solid magnesium oxide. The reactants and products are:

Reactants:

  $\begin{array}{l}{\text{Diboron trioxide, solid - B}}_{\text{2}}{\text{O}}_{\text{3}}(\text{s})\\ \text{Magnesium, solid - Mg (s)}\end{array}$

Products:

  $\begin{array}{l}\text{Boron, solid - B(s)}\\ \text{Magnesium oxide, solid - MgO (s)}\end{array}$

Unbalanced equation:

  ${\text{B}}_{\text{2}}{\text{O}}_3\text{(s) + Mg(s) }\to \text{ B (s) + MgO(s) }$

Conclusion

Therefore the unbalanced reaction will have solid diboron trioxide and magnesium as the reactants with elemental boron and solid magnesium oxide as the products.