Chemistry

In addition to math, the editor supports entering a variety of chemical equations.

Chemicals

Insert the chemical symbol for any chemical element by typing the symbol letters and pressing space.

To write the symbols for hydrogen and chlorine:

$H Cl$

Type:

Shift + H Space Shift + C L Space

Note: For brevity’s sake, the rest of the examples on this page will not spell out every keystroke. Instead, characters to be typed will be shown like this, with indicating a space. The example above would thus read H Cl .

When a compound includes more than one atom of an element, the number of atoms is written after the chemical symbol as a subscript, as with $H_{2} O$ . These can be added in the usual way, by pressing _ followed by the number of atoms and Enter. But as long as the compound consists of just chemical symbols and numbers, it can be written as a simple abbreviation:

To write the formula for barium sulfate:

$Ba S O_{4}$

Type:

BaSO4

Reactions

Various arrow-shaped operators are used to indicate a chemical reaction:

Symbol	Abbreviation	Description
$\to$	`yi`	Yields (can also inserted by typing `->`)
$⇌$	`eqm`	Equilibrium (can also inserted by typing `<->`)
$\overset{△}{\to}$	`yiheat`	Yields (with heat)
$\overset{hν}{\to}$	`yilight`	Yields (with light)
$\overset{}{\to}$	`yicat`	Yields (with catalyst)

To write:

Ba S O_{4} + 4 C \to Ba S + 4 C O

Type:

BaSO4 +4C ->BaS +4CO

Phase states and products

State symbols indicate the phase state of a reactant. They can be inserted using an abbreviation consisting of the first two letters of the state.

To write:

Fe (s) + Cu S O_{4} (aq) \to Fe S O_{4} (aq) + Cu (s)

Type:

Fe so +CuSO4 aq ->FeSO4 aq +Cu so

Products of a reaction are sometimes described using arrows to indicate that they are a gas ( $↑$ ) or precipitate ( $↓$ ). These can be inserted with the abbreviations gas and ppt, respectively.

To write:

2 Na + 2 H_{2} O \to 2 Na O H + H_{2} ↑

Type:

2Na +2H2O ->2NaOH +H2 gas

Isotopes

Isotopes are elements that differ in their number of neutrons. They are indicated with a mass number (the total number of protons and neutrons) before the chemical symbol as a superscript. To write an isotope in the editor, use an abbreviation consisting of iso (or isotope) and a chemical symbol.

Note: The number of protons is often written as a subscript. The editor also uses this notation, but this number is not editable since it is determined by the chemical symbol.

To write:

{}_{6}^{13}C

Type:

isoC 13 Enter

Tip: Because the editor expects a chemical symbol after the iso, capitalization is optional. For the above example, isoc would also work.

A few common isotopes have their own name and chemical symbol. These are D for ${}_{1}^{2}H$ deuterium, T for ${}_{1}^{3}H$ tritium, and Tn for ${}_{86}^{220}{Rn}$ thoron. These are written like any chemical symbol, by typing the symbol and pressing Space.

Elementary particles

Like elements, elementary particles can be inserted with short abbreviations:

Abbreviations of elementary particles
$e^{-}$ Electron	$e^{+}$ Positron	$p^{+}$ Proton	$p^{-}$ Antiproton
`el`	`pos`	`pro`	`apro`
$n$ Neutron	$\bar{n}$ Antineutron	$ν_{e}$ Neutrino	${\bar{ν}}_{e}$ Antineutrino
`neu`	`aneu`	`eno`	`aeno`
$μ^{-}$ Muon	$μ^{+}$ Antimuon	$ν_{μ}$ Muon Neutrino	${\bar{ν}}_{μ}$ Muon Antineutrino
`muon`	`amuon`	`muno`	`amuno`
$τ^{-}$ Tauon	$τ^{+}$ Antitauon	$ν_{τ}$ Tauon Neutrino	${\bar{ν}}_{τ}$ Tauon Antineutrino
`tauon`	`atauon`	`tauno`	`atauno`

To write:

H \overset{△}{\to} H^{+} + e^{-}

Type:

H yiheat H ^+ Enter +el

Fullerene cages

Fullerenes—hollow, ball-like carbon structures—can form cages around another atom or molecule. This is indicated in chemical formulas using the $@$ symbol.

To write:

Ca @ C_{82}

Type:

Ca@C82

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