Difference Between Equalization and Neutralization

The key difference between equalization and neutralization is that equalization refers to balancing of the atoms of a chemical reaction equation, whereas neutralization is the balancing of the acidity or basicity to obtain a neutral solution.

Although the terms equalization and neutralization sound similar, they are different from each other in meaning and application. However, both these terms refer to the balancing process of chemical components.

CONTENTS

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Equalization
3. What is Neutralization
4. Side by Side Comparison – Equalization vs Neutralization in Tabular Form
5. Summary

What is Equalization?

Equalization is the technique of balancing the atoms of a chemical reaction equation. Here, we have to equalize the number of atoms in the reactant side to the number of atoms in the product side. This means atomicity before and after the chemical reaction has to be equal. For this purpose, we can use stoichiometric coefficients in front of reactants and products (a stoichiometric coefficient is a number that appears before the symbol of chemical species in the equation for a chemical reaction. These values are unitless values).

The following steps help us to balance a chemical equation for a simple chemical reaction.

1. Write down the unbalanced equation. (E.g. C₃H₈ +   O₂    ⟶    CO₂   +   H₂O)
2. Determine the numbers of each atom present in both the reactant side and product side. (in the reactant side there are 8 hydrogen atoms, 3 carbon atoms and 2 oxygen atoms. In the product side, there are 2 hydrogen atoms, 3 oxygen atoms and one carbon atom).
3. Save hydrogen and oxygen atoms for last.
4. Use stoichiometric coefficients to balance single elements. (use stoichiometric coefficient “3” in front of CO₂) e.g. C₃H₈ +   O₂    ⟶    3CO₂   +   H₂O
5. Balance the number of hydrogen atoms. (there are 8 hydrogen atom in reactant side but only 2 in the product side, so, we should use the stoichiometric coefficient 4 in front of H₂O) e.g. C₃H₈ +   O₂    ⟶    3CO₂   +   4H₂O
6. Balance the number of oxygen atoms. E.g. C₃H₈ +   5O₂    ⟶    3CO₂   +   4H₂O

What is Neutralization?

A neutralization reaction is a chemical reaction between an acid and a base, which produces a neutral solution. A neutral solution will always have pH 7. This reaction involves the combination of H+ ions and OH– ions to form water molecules.

If the final pH of an acid and base reaction mixture is 7, that means equal amounts of H+ and OH– ions have reacted here (in order to form a water molecule, one H+ ion and one OH– ions are required). The reacted acids and bases can be either strong or weak. The reactions vary depending on this fact.

There are four different types of neutralization reactions: strong acid-strong base reactions, strong acid-weak base reactions, weak acid-weak base reactions, and weak acid-weak base reactions. These reactions undergo neutralization at different degrees, depending on the strength of the acid and the base.

What is the Difference Between Equalization and Neutralization?

The key difference between equalization and neutralization is that equalization refers to balancing of the atoms of a chemical reaction equation whereas neutralization is the balancing of the acidity or basicity to obtain a neutral solution. Moreover, equalization involves using the number of atoms in reactants and products and using the oxidation states of atoms, whereas neutralization involves determining the strength of acids and bases involved in the reaction.

Below infographic summarizes the difference between equalization and neutralization.

Summary – Equalization vs Neutralization

Although the term equalization and neutralization sound similar, they are different from each other in definition and application. The key difference between equalization and neutralization is that equalization refers to balancing the atoms of a chemical reaction equation, whereas neutralization is balancing the acidity or basicity to obtain a neutral solution.

Image Courtesy:

2. “Titolazion” By Luigi Chiesa – Draw by Luigi Chiesa (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia