chemical reaction

Also known as reaction, rxn.

process that results in the interconversion of chemical species

AI overview

A chemical reaction is a process where substances transform into different substances by rearranging their atomic components. This matters because chemical reactions are how materials change form—from cooking food to powering batteries to sustaining life itself.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Wikidata facts

Subclass of: chemical process
Image: ThermiteFe2O3.JPG

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uses: reactant
Commons category: Chemical reactions
topic's main category: Category:Chemical reactions
has effect: product
described by source: Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition
on focus list of Wikimedia project: Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/4

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Encyclopedic overview

A thermite reaction using iron(III) oxide. The sparks flying outwards are globules of molten iron trailing smoke in their wake.

A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the chemical transformation of one set of chemical substances to another. When chemical reactions occur, the atoms are rearranged and the reaction is accompanied by an energy change as new products are generated. Classically, chemical reactions encompass changes that only involve the positions of electrons in the forming and breaking of chemical bonds between atoms, with no change to the nuclei (no change to the elements present), and can often be described by a chemical equation. Nuclear chemistry is a sub-discipline of chemistry that involves the chemical reactions of unstable and radioactive elements where both electronic and nuclear changes can occur.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “chemical reaction” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.