Waiting for answer This question has not been answered yet. You can hire a professional tutor to get the answer.

QUESTION

# How to balance the equation H2So4 + Fe = Fe2(So4)3 + H2?

A very important aspect to keep in mind here - you don't actually have 4 "So" on the reactants' side and 12 "So" elements on the products' side because "So" color(red)("is not an element").

You're dealing with the sulfate anion, SO_4^(2-), which is comprised of 1 sulfur atom, "S", and 4 oxygen atoms, "O".

This means that you can try to balance the equation either by looking at individual elements, like the other answer attempts to do, or by taking the sulfate anion as a group.

The latter options implies that you have 2 hydrogen atoms, 1 sulfate group, and 1 iron atom on the left side of the equation, and 2 iron atoms, 2 hydrogen atoms, and 3 sulfate groups on the right side of the equation.

H_2SO_4 + Fe -> Fe_2(SO_4)_3 + H_2

Balance the sulfate group first and focus on the rest of the species afterwards. So, you have three times more sulfate groups on the right hand side of the equation -> multiply the compound that contains the sulfate group by 3 on the left hand side.

color(red)(3)H_2SO_4 + Fe -> Fe_2(SO_4)_(color(red)(3)) + H_2

By multiplying this compound by 3, you've increased the number of hydrogen atoms on the left hand side to 6 -> multiply the hydrogen on the right hand side by 3 to balance them out.

color(red)(3)H_(color(blue)(2))SO_4 + Fe -> Fe_2(SO_4)_(color(red)(3)) + color(red)(3)H_color(blue)(2)

Finally, you've got 2 iron atoms on the right hand side -> multiply the iron by 2 on the left hand side to balance them out

color(red)(3)H_(color(blue)(2))SO_4 + color(green)(2)Fe -> Fe_(color(green)(2))(SO_4)_(color(red)(3)) + color(red)(3)H_color(blue)(2)