Instant Access To 100,000+ Essays!

Introduction I. Background The Law of Conservation of Matter states two things. 1) Energy cannot be destroyed or created in the course of a reaction, and 2) Matter can neither be created nor destroyed in the course of a reaction. This is true because, you cannot react copper and oxygen together and expect to get calcium back. Only those reactants that initially go into the reaction will come out. They will have been changed during the course of the reaction, but you will still have copper and oxygen in your end results. Also, you will never lose chemicals. If you react 5 grams of copper with 5 ml of HCl, your end result will still have 5 grams of copper. No matter can be lost during the reactions, but it can be changed and form other compounds. Chemical synthesis involves separation and purification of the desired product from unwanted side products. Some methods of separation include extraction, decantation, filtration, sublimation, and sedimentation. There are two specific reactions that allow chemical synthesis occur: metathesis and redox reactions. Metathesis reactions occur whenever one of the components is removed from the solution. It is a reaction in which anions and cations exchange partners, or