Infographic highlighting different types of arrows used in chemistry. The graphic is broken into two sections: chemical reaction arrows and electron movement arrows. Chemical reaction arrows shown are the reaction arrow, the multiple steps arrow, the broken arrow, the reversible reaction arrow, the equilibrium arrow and the retrosynthesis arrow. Electron movement arrows shown are the resonance arrows and curly arrows.
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What do the various different arrows used by chemists all mean? That’s the question this short summary graphic aims to answer, by highlighting the most common arrows encountered in chemistry lessons and textbooks and giving a brief explanation of their use with examples.

I’ve been wanting to put a graphic on this together for a while and finally got around to doing it over the past few weeks. I know something along these lines already exists in text form online elsewhere, but I liked the idea of having it in a single reference poster.

You can download the PDF via the button below. Anything I’ve missed? Let me know in the comments!

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