Reaction Product Predictor
Enter reactants to look them up via PubChem and predict products of common reactions.
Enter reactant names (e.g. 'hydrochloric acid, sodium hydroxide') or formulas directly (e.g. 'CH4, O2'), separated by commas. Click 'Predict Products' to look up each reactant and see the reaction type, products and balanced equation.
Learn more
What it does
The Reaction Product Predictor helps you work out what forms when chemicals react. You enter reactants by name or formula, and the tool looks up each compound and proposes products for common reaction classes. It is useful for students checking homework, lab workers planning a synthesis, and anyone who needs a quick, balanced equation.
How it works
The tool first queries the PubChem PUG REST API to fetch the molecular formula, molar mass, and structure of each reactant. Because PubChem does not predict products, the tool then applies heuristic rules for a limited set of reaction types: combustion (a hydrocarbon or fuel plus oxygen gives carbon dioxide and water), acid-base neutralization (an acid plus a base gives a salt plus water), and simple combination (two reactants merge into one product). It then balances the equation so atoms are conserved on both sides. Note it covers only these common classes and flags anything else as unrecognized.
Worked example
Take hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide. Enter hydrochloric acid, sodium hydroxide. The tool looks up HCl and NaOH, identifies an acid-base neutralization, and returns the balanced equation HCl + NaOH -> NaCl + H2O. For combustion, enter CH4, O2 and it returns CH4 + 2 O2 -> CO2 + 2 H2O.
When to use it
Use it to verify the products of a textbook acid-base or combustion reaction before a lab session. Use it to get a correctly balanced equation you can feed into the stoichiometry calculator. Use it to look up the molecular formula and molar mass of a reactant you only know by name.
FAQ
- How do I predict the products of a chemical reaction?
- Enter your reactants by name or formula, separated by commas, and the tool looks each one up and applies rules for combustion, acid-base neutralization, and combination reactions to propose balanced products.
- Can the reaction predictor predict every type of reaction?
- No. It uses heuristic rules and only covers common classes such as combustion, acid-base neutralization, and simple combination. Reactions outside these classes are flagged as unrecognized, and you should balance them manually.
- What is an acid-base neutralization reaction?
- It is a reaction where an acid and a base react to form a salt and water, for example HCl + NaOH gives NaCl + H2O. The tool recognizes this pattern and returns the balanced equation.
- Does the predictor get product data directly from PubChem?
- It uses PubChem only to identify each reactant's formula, molar mass, and structure. Product prediction itself uses the tool's own heuristic rules, because PubChem does not predict reaction products.