Nickel sulfide is a compound that is commonly used in the production of stainless steel and other alloys. The chemical equation for the formation of nickel sulfide is a classic example of an oxidation-reduction (redox) reaction.

The reaction involves the transfer of electrons between sulfur and nickel atoms. The sulfur atom gains two electrons, which results in the reduction of the sulfur atom to S-II. The nickel atom loses two electrons, which results in the oxidation of the nickel atom to NiII. The sulfur atom acts as an oxidizing agent, while the nickel atom acts as a reducing agent.

Word Equation:

The reaction can be represented using the following word equation:

Mixed sulfur + Nickel → Nickel(II) sulfide

Input Interpretation:

The word equation can be translated into a chemical equation as follows:

S + Ni → NiS

Balanced Equation:

To balance the chemical equation, we need to ensure that the number of atoms of each element is equal on both sides of the equation. We can achieve this by adding stoichiometric coefficients, c1, c2, and c3, to the reactants and products:

c1S + c2Ni → c3NiS

We then set the number of atoms in the reactants equal to the number of atoms in the products for sulfur and nickel:

S: c1 = c3

Ni: c2 = c3

Since the coefficients are relative quantities and underdetermined, we choose a coefficient to set arbitrarily. To keep the coefficients small, the arbitrary value is ordinarily one. For instance, we can set c1 = 1 and solve the system of equations for the remaining coefficients:

c1 = 1

c2 = 1

c3 = 1

The balanced chemical equation is:

S + Ni → NiS

As a result of this balanced equation, we can see that one sulfur atom reacts with one nickel atom to produce one molecule of nickel sulfide.