Can A reversible chemical reaction can only convert reactants to products true or false?

Answer 1

False!!!!

A reversible reaction converts reactants to products, but when sufficient product is made spontaneously to products will reform the reactants.

The reaction system reaches a point known as an 'Equilibrium', where the forward reaction ( reactants to products) rate is the as the backward reaction (products to reactants).

At Equilibrium all four chemicals are present in the reaction vessel.

The Classic example is Ethanol and Ethanoic Acid , forms water and Ethyl Ethanoate.

The reaction equation is

CH3COOH + CH3CH2OH H2O + CH3C(=O)OCH2CH3

The double ended arrow indicates a system which is reversible and at equilibrium.

Answer 2

The answer to your question is "True" and "False."

Let's suppose that there is a chemical compound in solution in one beaker and a second chemical compound in solution in a second beaker, and it is known that the two compounds react, but not completely, because the chemical reaction is reversible.

We'll have to assume that the two solutions are completely mixed almost instantly after they are added together, and there are ways to do this, or that the forward and reverse reactions are very slow. Also, since the reaction is reversible, which compounds are the "reactants" and which ones are the "products" depends on how the chemical equation is written. The convention is that the compounds (or compound) written on the left side of the chemical equation are called the "reactants."

Right when the two solutions are mixed, there are no products available yet to react via the reverse reaction to re-form the reactants. Therefore, even though the reaction is reversiblle, the only reaction that can occur is the forward reaction, that is the reaction of reactants to products.

As soon as any product molecules are formed, some of them will react via the reverse reaction to re-form some of the the reactants. However, the concentration of the products will be very low a very short time after the reactants are mixed, which means that the reverse reaction will probably be slower than the forward reaction. This is not always the case because it depends on the relative rates of the forward and reverse reactions.

I cannot write the equilibrium equations for the forward and reverse reactions here because they would get all messed up when this answer is saved. If you have not yet learned how to do this, it is definitely in your text book. The two most important things to learn and understand are: 1) All reversible reactions will eventually reach an equilibrium (at a given temperature), which is the point where the concentrations of the reactants and the concentration of the products are constant. The forward and reverse reactions are still taking place, but there is no net change in the concentration of any of the compounds involved in the reactions. 2) This is obvious if you think about it a little; the ratio of the forward and reverse equilibrium equations is equal to the ratio of the forward and reverse rate constants. This ration is usually denoted as k1/k-1.

To summarize, the answer to your question is "True" only during a [usually] extremely brief time immediately after the reactants are first mixed together. At all times afterwards, the answer to your question is "False."