Chemical Reactions

In ChemistryLab it is possible to build chemical reactions and manipulate them. A reaction is constructed as a structure, "a composite data type that allows you to store multiple values in a single object". The struct is organized as follows:

struct Reaction{SR<:AbstractSpecies, TR<:Number, SP<:AbstractSpecies, TP<:Number}
    equation::String
    colored::String
    reactants::OrderedDict{SR, TR}
    products::OrderedDict{SP, TP}
    equal_sign::Char
    properties::OrderedDict{Symbol,PropertyType}
end

Parsing reactions

Reaction is a composite type struct which can be build from:

a string containing species

equation = "13H⁺ + NO₃⁻ + CO₃²⁻ + 10e⁻ = 6H₂O@ + HCN@"
reac, prod, equal_sign = parse_equation(equation)

a string containing cement species

eqC3S = "C₃S + 5.3H = 1.3CH + C₁.₇SH₄"
rC3S = CemReaction(eqC3S)

an operation on species

using ChemistryLab
C3S = CemSpecies("C3S", symbol="C₃S", aggregate_state=AS_CRYSTAL, class=SC_COMPONENT)
H = CemSpecies("H", symbol="H₂O@", aggregate_state=AS_AQUEOUS, class=SC_AQSOLVENT)
CH = CemSpecies("CH", symbol="C₃S", aggregate_state=AS_CRYSTAL, class=SC_COMPONENT)
CSH = CemSpecies("C1.7SH4", aggregate_state=AS_CRYSTAL, class=SC_COMPONENT)
r = C3S + 5.3H ↔ 1.3CH + CSH
typeof(r)

Reaction{CemSpecies{Int64, Int64}, Float64, CemSpecies, Float64, Int64}

a balance calculation

using ChemistryLab
C3S = CemSpecies("C3S")
H = CemSpecies("H")
CH = CemSpecies("CH")
CSH = CemSpecies("C1.7SH4")
r = Reaction([C3S, H, CH, CSH]; equal_sign='→')
pprint(r)

  equation: C₃S + 5.3H → 1.3CH + C₁.₇SH₄
 reactants: C₃S => 1, H => 5.3
  products: CH => 1.3, C₁.₇SH₄ => 1
    charge: 0

a balance calculation with symbolic numbers

using ChemistryLab
using Symbolics
@variables a b g
CSH = CemSpecies(Dict(:C => a, :S => one(Num), :H => g))
C3S = CemSpecies("C3S")
H = CemSpecies("H")
CH = CemSpecies("CH")
r = Reaction([CSH, C3S, H, CH]; equal_sign='→')

  equation: CₐSHg → (3-a+g)H + C₃S + (-3+a)CH
 reactants: CₐSHg => 1
  products: H => 3 - a + g, C₃S => 1, CH => -3 + a
    charge: 0

using ChemistryLab
using Symbolics
using PrettyTables
@variables a b g
CSH = CemSpecies(Dict(:C => a, :S => one(Num), :H => g))
C3S = CemSpecies("C3S")
H = CemSpecies("H")
CH = CemSpecies("CH")
r = map(simplify, Reaction([C3S, H], [CH, CSH]; equal_sign='→'))
SM = StoichMatrix([C3S], [CSH, H, CH])
pprint(SM)

┌───────┬────────────┐
│       │        C3S │
├───────┼────────────┤
│     H │ -3 + a - g │
│ CₐSHg │          1 │
│    CH │      3 - a │
└───────┴────────────┘

Collection of arrow symbols

In ChemistryLab, there are collections of arrow symbols used in chemical reaction notation, such as:

>, →, ↣, ↦, ⇾, ⟶, ⟼, ⥟, ⥟, ⇀, ⇁, ⇒, ⟾ for reaction directionality from reactants to products;
<, ←, ↢, ↤, ⇽, ⟵, ⟻, ⥚, ⥞, ↼, ↽, ⇐, ⟽ for reaction directionality from products to reactants;
↔, ⟷, ⇄, ⇆, ⇌, ⇋, ⇔, ⟺ for reversible reactions and equilibrium states;
=, ≔, ⩴, ≕ to separate reactants from products in balanced equations.

Thermodynamic properties of reactions

When the species involved in a reaction carry thermodynamic data (loaded from a database), the reaction automatically exposes temperature-dependent thermodynamic functions. These are computed lazily on first access and stored in the reaction's properties dict:

Property	Description
`r.ΔᵣCp⁰`	Heat capacity of reaction (J mol⁻¹ K⁻¹)
`r.ΔᵣH⁰`	Enthalpy of reaction (J mol⁻¹)
`r.ΔᵣS⁰`	Entropy of reaction (J mol⁻¹ K⁻¹)
`r.ΔᵣG⁰`	Gibbs free energy of reaction (J mol⁻¹)
`r.logK⁰`	Decimal logarithm of the equilibrium constant

Each property is a SymbolicFunc callable with a keyword argument T (temperature in K):

using ChemistryLab

# Load reactions from a database-built stoichiometric matrix
all_species = build_species("../../../data/cemdata18-merged.json")
species = speciation(all_species, split("Cal H2O@");
              aggregate_state=[AS_AQUEOUS], exclude_species=split("H2@ O2@ CH4@"))
dict_species = Dict(symbol(s) => s for s in species)
candidate_primaries = [dict_species[s] for s in CEMDATA_PRIMARIES if haskey(dict_species, s)]
cs = ChemicalSystem(species, candidate_primaries)
list_reactions = reactions(cs.SM)
dict_reactions = Dict(r.symbol => r for r in list_reactions)

r_cal = dict_reactions["Cal"]   # calcite dissolution reaction

# Evaluate at 25 °C
r_cal.logK⁰(T = 298.15)          # log₁₀ K at 25 °C
r_cal.ΔᵣG⁰(T = 298.15)           # ΔᵣG° at 25 °C  (J/mol)

Properties can also be set manually on a reaction:

r = Reaction("H2 + O2 = H2O")
r[:ΔᵣH⁰] = -241800.0   # J/mol

Reactions from a stoichiometric matrix

The most common source of reactions in a database workflow is reactions(SM), which derives all independent reactions from a StoichMatrix:

list_reactions = reactions(cs.SM)
dict_reactions = Dict(r.symbol => r for r in list_reactions)

Each reaction symbol matches the dependent species it describes. Temperature-dependent thermodynamic functions are computed automatically when the constituent species carry thermodynamic data.

Algebraic reaction balancing

The null space of the stoichiometric matrix automatically yields balanced chemical reactions — no manual coefficient guessing needed. This is the algebraic counterpart to the chemical insight that mass must be conserved.

Principle

Given a set of species, ChemicalSystem builds the stoichiometric matrix A (rows = elements, columns = species). Any vector ν in the null space of A satisfies Aν = 0, i.e. it represents a balanced reaction. reactions(cs.SM) extracts one independent balanced reaction per dependent species.

Example: combustion of methane

using ChemistryLab

# Declare gas-phase species
CH4 = Species("CH4"; aggregate_state = AS_GAS, class = SC_GASFLUID)
O2  = Species("O2";  aggregate_state = AS_GAS, class = SC_GASFLUID)
CO2 = Species("CO2"; aggregate_state = AS_GAS, class = SC_GASFLUID)
H2O = Species("H2O"; aggregate_state = AS_GAS, class = SC_GASFLUID)

# CH4, O2, H2O are the primary (independent) components; CO2 is the derived species
primaries = [CH4, O2, H2O]
cs = ChemicalSystem([CH4, O2, CO2, H2O], primaries)

rxns = reactions(cs.SM)
pprint(rxns[1])

    symbol: CO2
  equation: CH₄ + 2O₂ = CO₂ + 2H₂O
 reactants: CH₄ => 1, O₂ => 2
  products: CO₂ => 1, H₂O => 2
    charge: 0

Reading the matrix

The stoichiometric matrix for this system (elements as rows, species as columns) is:

	C	H	O
CH₄	1	4	0
O₂	0	0	2
CO₂	1	0	2
H₂O	0	2	1

With CH₄, O₂, H₂O as primaries, CO₂ is the dependent species. reactions(cs.SM) expresses CO₂ as: CO₂ = CH₄ + 2 O₂ − 2 H₂O, yielding the balanced equation CH₄ + 2 O₂ → CO₂ + 2 H₂O.

Example: combustion of alkanes (CₙH₂ₙ₊₂)

using ChemistryLab

C2H6 = Species("C2H6"; aggregate_state = AS_GAS, class = SC_GASFLUID)
C3H8 = Species("C3H8"; aggregate_state = AS_GAS, class = SC_GASFLUID)
O2   = Species("O2";   aggregate_state = AS_GAS, class = SC_GASFLUID)
CO2  = Species("CO2";  aggregate_state = AS_GAS, class = SC_GASFLUID)
H2O  = Species("H2O";  aggregate_state = AS_GAS, class = SC_GASFLUID)

primaries = [CO2, H2O, O2]

# Ethane: C₂H₆ + 7/2 O₂ → 2 CO₂ + 3 H₂O
# reactions(SM) returns the reverse here; negate to get the forward combustion direction
cs_ethane = ChemicalSystem([C2H6, O2, CO2, H2O], primaries)
pprint(-reactions(cs_ethane.SM)[1])

    symbol: C2H6
  equation: C₂H₆ + 7//2O₂ = 3H₂O + 2CO₂
 reactants: C₂H₆ => 1, O₂ => 7//2
  products: H₂O => 3, CO₂ => 2
    charge: 0

# Propane: C₃H₈ + 5 O₂ → 3 CO₂ + 4 H₂O
cs_propane = ChemicalSystem([C3H8, O2, CO2, H2O], primaries)
pprint(-reactions(cs_propane.SM)[1])

    symbol: C3H8
  equation: C₃H₈ + 5O₂ = 4H₂O + 3CO₂
 reactants: C₃H₈ => 1, O₂ => 5
  products: H₂O => 4, CO₂ => 3
    charge: 0

The general formula for saturated alkanes CₙH₂ₙ₊₂ is: CₙH₂ₙ₊₂ + (3n+1)/2 O₂ → n CO₂ + (n+1) H₂O

Example: combustion of alkenes (CₙH₂ₙ)

using ChemistryLab

C2H4 = Species("C2H4"; aggregate_state = AS_GAS, class = SC_GASFLUID)
C3H6 = Species("C3H6"; aggregate_state = AS_GAS, class = SC_GASFLUID)
O2   = Species("O2";   aggregate_state = AS_GAS, class = SC_GASFLUID)
CO2  = Species("CO2";  aggregate_state = AS_GAS, class = SC_GASFLUID)
H2O  = Species("H2O";  aggregate_state = AS_GAS, class = SC_GASFLUID)

primaries = [CO2, H2O, O2]

# Ethylene: C₂H₄ + 3 O₂ → 2 CO₂ + 2 H₂O
# reactions(SM) returns the reverse here; negate to get the forward combustion direction
cs_ethylene = ChemicalSystem([C2H4, O2, CO2, H2O], primaries)
pprint(-reactions(cs_ethylene.SM)[1])

    symbol: C2H4
  equation: C₂H₄ + 3O₂ = 2H₂O + 2CO₂
 reactants: C₂H₄ => 1, O₂ => 3
  products: H₂O => 2, CO₂ => 2
    charge: 0

# Propylene: C₃H₆ + 9/2 O₂ → 3 CO₂ + 3 H₂O
cs_propylene = ChemicalSystem([C3H6, O2, CO2, H2O], primaries)
pprint(-reactions(cs_propylene.SM)[1])

    symbol: C3H6
  equation: C₃H₆ + 9//2O₂ = 3H₂O + 3CO₂
 reactants: C₃H₆ => 1, O₂ => 9//2
  products: H₂O => 3, CO₂ => 3
    charge: 0

Alkenes CₙH₂ₙ follow: CₙH₂ₙ + 3n/2 O₂ → n CO₂ + n H₂O.

Example: multiple simultaneous reactions

When more than one dependent species is present, reactions(cs.SM) returns one balanced equation per dependent species:

using ChemistryLab

CH4  = Species("CH4";  aggregate_state = AS_GAS, class = SC_GASFLUID)
C2H6 = Species("C2H6"; aggregate_state = AS_GAS, class = SC_GASFLUID)
C2H4 = Species("C2H4"; aggregate_state = AS_GAS, class = SC_GASFLUID)
O2   = Species("O2";   aggregate_state = AS_GAS, class = SC_GASFLUID)
CO2  = Species("CO2";  aggregate_state = AS_GAS, class = SC_GASFLUID)
H2O  = Species("H2O";  aggregate_state = AS_GAS, class = SC_GASFLUID)

primaries = [CO2, H2O, O2]
cs = ChemicalSystem([CH4, C2H6, C2H4, O2, CO2, H2O], primaries)

rxns = reactions(cs.SM)
for r in rxns
    println((-r).equation)
end

CH₄ + 2O₂ = 2H₂O + CO₂
C₂H₆ + 7//2O₂ = 3H₂O + 2CO₂
C₂H₄ + 3O₂ = 2H₂O + 2CO₂

When to use algebraic balancing

Algebraic balancing via reactions(cs.SM) is most useful when:

The system has many species and manual balancing would be error-prone.
You load species from a database and want all independent reactions automatically.
You want to verify that a set of species is stoichiometrically consistent.