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What does an asterisk reply mean?

What does it mean to put an asterisk after a chemical symbol?

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    * means like the first person said, an excited state for that atom/molecule. Such reactions occur frequently in photochemistry, such as: O2 + M = O2* O2* = 2O - The above reaction is a classic one which might use this asterisk. It shows that an O2 molecule bumps into another molecule (denoted by M) which gives it kinetic energy and thus makes it more excited (which is why we use the asterisk). Now that it has this extra energy it is easy to use this energy for bond breaking (shown in step two). First guy had it bang on!

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I have never seen the asterisk used in any chemistry. I suspect it's layman's notation to indicate an the element in question is an isotope.

* means like the first person said, an excited state for that atom/molecule. Such reactions occur frequently in photochemistry, such as: O2 + M = O2* O2* = 2O - The above reaction is a classic one which might use this asterisk. It shows that an O2 molecule bumps into another molecule (denoted by M) which gives it kinetic energy and thus makes it more excited (which is why we use the asterisk). Now that it has this extra energy it is easy to use this energy for bond breaking (shown in step two). First guy had it bang on!

usually it means unstable or contains high-energy. Other people might define the * differently

I have never seen the asterisk used in any chemistry. I suspect it's layman's notation to indicate an the element in question is an isotope.

James

usually it means unstable or contains high-energy. Other people might define the * differently

Big_Kid

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