Abstract

Organic combustion is a classic redox reaction. In the study of stoichiometric organic combustion, structural formula has been given little attention when compared to empirical formula. This article uses the arithmetic method to develop a chemical formula-based molecular organic combustion equation, in which the mean oxidation number of organic carbons is selected to be a redox and structural metric for differentiating empirical formula and structural formula, connecting redox parameters, and balancing organic combustion equations. When any empirical formula of organic matter is given, the organic combustion equation can be balanced and deduced. Furthermore, when known atomic coefficients of an empirical formula are input into the general deduced organic combustion equation, the balanced organic combustion can be easily determined. Comparatively, when any structural formula is given, it must undergo the fragmentation method to have the designated products identified and then the arithmetic method can be applied to balance the organic combustion equation. More importantly, this study establishes that for any given chemical formula of organic matter, the parameters of organic matter, the redox parameters of organic combustion, and the balanced organic combustion equation can be determined.

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