应用矩阵来获取化学物质的平衡系数.pdfVIP

Journal of Mathematical Chemistry Vol. 34, Nos. 1–2, July 2003 (© 2003) A concise description of an old problem: application of matrices to obtain the balancing coefficients of chemical equations P. Ramasami Department of Chemistry, University of Mauritius, Réduit, Mauritius E-mail: p.ramasami@uom.ac.mu Received 21 May 2002; revised 10 March 2003 It is not difficult to balance chemical equations and thus it is hardly given more thoughts. However, there is a mathematical principle for the balancing of chemical equations and this principle may be used for automation. The balancing of chemical equation is carried out, by formulating a reaction matrix and the latter is used in a matrix equation. The matrix equation is then solved to obtain the balancing coefficients. The conventional matrix inverse method cannot always be used and hence the solution is obtained by row reduced operations. These operations and any matrix manipulation are carried out with Matlab. Further this novel method can be used to classify chemical equations as nonfeasible, unique and nonunique. KEY WORDS: balancing equations, matrices 1. Introduction Simple chemical equations are easy to balance but more time is required for other equations, particularly redox equations. In general, the balancing coefficients are ob- tained by trial and error [1]. Thus chemical equations are sometimes so easy to balance that it is hardly given more thought. However, there are chemical equations which take more time for balancing [2–4] and it happens that sometimes when it is difficult to ob- tain the balancing coefficient, questions such as: Does the chemical reaction occur?, are asked. Well, it is very important to note