Vector-Based Approach to the Stoichiometric Analysis of Multicomponent Chemical Reactions: The Case of Black Powder

TL;DR

This paper introduces a vector-based method for calculating stoichiometric coefficients and enumerating all possible chemical reactions in multicomponent systems, demonstrated with black powder, enhancing understanding of reaction pathways.

Contribution

A novel vector-based approach for systematically deriving all feasible chemical equations and compositions in multicomponent reactions, applicable to arbitrary component ratios.

Findings

Established correlation between number of reactants and possible reactions.

Developed a method to compute all potential chemical equations.

Enabled calculation of chemical compositions for fixed reactant sets.

Abstract

The study demonstrates the capabilities of a vector-based approach for calculating stoichiometric coefficients in chemical equations, using black powder as an illustrative example. A method is proposed for selecting and constraining intermediate interactions between reactants, as well as for identifying final products. It is shown that even a small number of components can lead to a large number of final and intermediate products. Through concrete calculations, a correlation is established between the number of possible chemical equations and the number of reactants. A methodology is proposed for computing all possible chemical equations within a reaction system for arbitrary component ratios, enabling the derivation of all feasible chemical reactions. Additionally, a method is developed for calculating the chemical composition for a fixed set of reactants, allowing for the evaluation of the set of products resulting from all possible chemical interactions given a specified initial composition.