Double arrow symbol in chemical reaction notation

[Alan Siegrist]

Dear all,

 

I am translating a chemical patent and have a number of chemical reactions that contain a double arrow, with a “half arrow” pointing to the right on top and a similar half arrow pointing to the left on the bottom. I think this indicates that the reaction is reversible.

 

The arrow looks like this: .

 

I need to reproduce the reaction notation in a Word document to be sent to the client, but I cannot seem to find this symbol in any of the fonts available. How do others usually handle this situation? Should I replace it with a “double headed” arrow like ↔ or a pair of arrows like D (which is not really right because the top arrow points to the left)?

 

Should I embed a graphic of the arrow?

 

Is there a better solution out there?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Alan Siegrist

Orinda, CA, USA

AlanFS...@Comcast.net

 

 

[Matthew Schlecht]

     I can't interpost or bottom post to this message because of the formatting.

     Briefly, if you (or your client) like the look of the two half-headed arrows, by all means paste in a graphic.

     Do not use the ↔ in a chemical reaction equation.  This indicates resonance between two different electron distributions, but means that what appears on either side is actually the same thing, which has aspects of both descriptions.

     Feel free to use the D between the two halves of a chemical reaction equation.  Yes, this implies that the reaction is reversible and that there is an equilibrium between reactants and products.

     I don't know of a much better solution.  With such equations in a patent, I usually "grab" a graphic of the entire equation (reactants, arrows, products, any notes above or below any of the foregoing) and paste it in as a GIF, to keep the filesize down to a manageable level.

 

Matthew Schlecht

[Benjamin Barrett]

The only symbols I could find are in Arial Unicode MS: ⇋ ⇌.

I was surprised to see that not even the equation editor included them.

HTH
Benjamin Barrett
a cyberbreath for language life
livinglanguages.wordpress.com

Alan Siegrist wrote:
>
> Dear all,
>
> I am translating a chemical patent and have a number of chemical
> reactions that contain a double arrow, with a "half arrow" pointing to
> the right on top and a similar half arrow pointing to the left on the
> bottom. I think this indicates that the reaction is reversible.
>

> The arrow looks like this: .

[Alan Siegrist]

Benjamin Barrett writes:

 

> The only symbols I could find are in Arial Unicode MS: ? ?.

 

Thanks for the tip! I do find a nice symbol in that font.

 

By the way, for those reading along at home, the symbol in Arial Unicode MS is: ⇌

This should do the trick.

 

Thanks again and best regards,

[Jerome Conway]

Alan Siegrist wrote:
>
> I am translating a chemical patent and have a number of chemical reactions
> that contain a double arrow, with a "half arrow" pointing to the right on
> top and a similar half arrow pointing to the left on the bottom. I think
> this indicates that the reaction is reversible.

[...]

> Is there a better solution out there?

Here's a site where you can download ChemSerif and Chem SansSerif, both
of which have the "equilibrium arrows" as character code 190. Be sure to read the installation instructions in the ReadMe file.

http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/pt/shared/ChemFonts/readme.htm

Jerome Conway

[Jerome Conway]

I wrote:
Here's a site where you can download ChemSerif and Chem SansSerif, both
of which have the "equilibrium arrows" as character code 190. Be sure to read the installation instructions in the ReadMe file.

http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/pt/shared/ChemFonts/readme.htm
*******************************************************

Sorry, that the Readme. Here are the fonts:

http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/pt/shared/ChemFonts/

Jerome Conway

[R Freeman]

>
> The only symbols I could find are in Arial Unicode MS: ⇋ ⇌.
>
> I was surprised to see that not even the equation editor
> included them.

Mathtype has exactly what you are looking for if you are working in Word. Download it here http://www.dessci.com/en/

Mathtype is a free better replacement for Word's equation editor.
You down;oad the "Pro" version, and after 30 days it swithes to a "light" version that you can keep forever for free (no nag screens or anything. It just works as Equation Editor does).

I recommend it highly.

Cheers,
Robert Freeman