Writing Simple Equations for Combining HCl with Elements from the Carbon Group

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lifendeath
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I am doing the write up for one of my labs. In this write up we combined HCl with some of the elements from from the Carbon group (C, Si, Sn, Pb).

Naturally, my professor wants us to express what occurred in equation form. But I am not sure if I am doing it correctly... here is what I have so far:

C + 2HCl --> C(Cl)2 + H2

I didn't want to continue with the other 3 elements just in case I'm doing it wrong...So any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!
 

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Do you know what oxidation state the carbon ended up in?
Did you weight the reactants to determine how much C an Cl are used or are you supposed to know this from the chemistry?

I would have though C would go to C Cl4
 
mgb_phys said:
Do you know what oxidation state the carbon ended up in?
Did you weight the reactants to determine how much C an Cl are used or are you supposed to know this from the chemistry?

I would have though C would go to C Cl4

Honestly put, this was a very basic lab. We simply dropped a small piece of solid Carbon into a beaker-full of HCl.

For the Pb would the equation be: 2HCl + Pb --> PbCl2 + H2 OR 4HCl + Pb --> PbCl4 + H4?
 
You need to look up (or you could calculate it - but this is rather more advanced) what the final oxidation state of the carbon (etc) is eg C 2+ or C 4+.
then you just need to write a balanced equation to work out how man HCl you need to add to get to that.

Carbon tetrachloride is a common solvent so carbon definitely forms C Cl4 - I don't know about the others.

ps. It wouldn't be 2H or 4H since Hydrogen forms a molecule of 2 atoms, it would be H2 or 2 H2