Chemical formulae and equations have a different style compared to mathematical formulae and equations. For example:
Letters mean atomic symbols and are written upright, unlike italic math variables
Numbers are commonly used in subscripts, indicating the number of atoms
We use a lot of subscripts and superscripts, and they should be aligned properly
We need also left subscripts and superscripts
We need special symbols such as for bonds and arrows for chemical equations
With basic LaTeX, it's hard to achieve all of this. Let's find a better way.
We will use the chemformula
package. We will boldly go ahead and type some chemical stuff to see how it works. The LaTeX output will follow, so you may look ahead line by line if you like. Let's start: