Solid Metal
How do I know the formula of a substance in solid, powder, metal, etc. form?
Ok, I'm gonna try to ask this question again. I want to know how to write out the formula of a substance in its solid, powder or gas form.
For example solid magnesium, or aluminum powder. Is it just the same formula as it is on the periodic table or how do you know when it's a dimer.
Like aluminum powder, I don't know if it's just Li, Li2, Li3 or something like that.
I know how how to name substance, I'm just not sure about powder, solid, or metal form.
Yeah, sorry, it was a typo, I mean Al for aluminum.
To name a substance's state, be it any compound, in a chemical equation you would put the state symbol in parenthesis after the chemical's symbol.
s = solid
g = gas
l = liquid
These are the three states that are used most often (or at least I've only seen these three in any chemical equation I've found).
For example: The three states of Aluminum.
1) Al (s) => Al (l)
2) Al (l) => Al (g)
As for when the substance is a powder or a big chunk of whatever it is still considered a solid and thus should be written as the 1) equation's solid.
Now, when you're talking about writing an element's chemical formula you're entering a whole other zone. Basically, the ground state's chemical formula for that element usually does not change with its physical state.
For instance: Hydrogen gas going to Hydrogen liquid.
H2 (g) => H2 (l)
H2 (l) => H2 (s)
I hope that answers your question.
(one more thing; I'm not sure if it was a typo or what but make sure you have your element's symbol and its name right. This is because you used "aluminum powder" as an example and put "Li" as its symbol when it should be "Al". I'm not sure if it was just some honest mistake or not, but I wanted you to know nevertheless.)