[Tex/LaTex] Align equilibrium arrows with mhchem

alignarrowschemistrymhchem

I have the following code made with the mhchem package:

\begin{align}
    \ce{CH3COOH + NaOH <=> CH3COONa + H2O} \\
    \ce{H2O <=> H^{+}_{(aq)} + OH^{-}_{(aq)}}
\end{align}

Which produces the following output:

enter image description here

Now I'd like to align the two equilibrium arrows. I've only come up with this:

\begin{align}
    \ce{CH3COOH + OH-} &\rightleftharpoons \ce{CH3COO- + H2O} \\
    \ce{H2O} &\rightleftharpoons \ce{H^{+}_{(aq)} + OH^{-}_{(aq)}}
\end{align}

Which gives this:

enter image description here

The arrows are too short. I've searched and couldn't find any that are longer. I'd like to either a) use the same arrows as mhchem in the second example or b) align the arrows in the first example.

Best Answer

There is a separate command for using \ce in equation environments that allows using ampersands (&) for alignment: \cee

So, no need to work around an make things less readable:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[version=3]{mhchem}
\begin{document}
\begin{align}
\cee{CH3COOH + NaOH &<=> CH3COONa + H2O} \\
\cee{H2O &<=> H^{+}_{(aq)} + OH^{-}_{(aq)}}
\end{align}
\end{document}
Related Question