REACTION CHARTS The chemistry of some of the non-metallic elements presents a confusing variety of reactions to the student of inorganic chemistry. Interesting and important correlations cannot be made because of the difficulty in keep-
ing the details in mind. It was this situation which led to the construction of the charts herein presented. They have been used successfully for some years. The charts are for the most part self-explanatory. Equations have been left unbalanced for the sake of simplicity. Some interesting observations can he pointed out in the reactions of the halogen compounds of which
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those in the chart for chlorine are typical. The compounds found in nature are those with a valence of - 1or of +7. The instability of the compounds intermediate to these two stable varieties is apparent from the chart. These phenomena can be interpreted structurally from the stability of the rare gas configurations represented by the respective stable compounds.
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The sulfur reactions analogous to those of KC103 and HClOa are N&OJ = NanS NaSO, and = &SO, S Hs0 The compounds of phosphorus act similarly to the halogen compounds and sodium sul6te. An attempt is made in the chart for oxidation-reduction processes with sulfuric and nitric acids to show the effect of the various reducing agents. It should be pointed out that HeS, for example, is not the sole reduction product of K I and concentrated HzSO,. Some SOz and free sulfur are also likely to he present. The inset for iron and nitric acid shows the proportions of the various reduction products of nitric acid for the different concentrations of the acid used (1).
+
+ +
Literature Cited ( I ) BROWN,J. G., J. Phys. Chem., 25, 431 (1921).
