Write cursive l letter in chemical formula with chemmacros package

Question

How can I replace the letter l in HCl with ℓ so it becomes HCℓ when using chemmacros? I would like to avoid confusion between l, 1 and I which look very similar.

Roland · Accepted Answer

One option:
documentclass{article}
usepackage{chemmacros}
begin{document}
    
    ch{HC$ell$}
    ch{HC$ell$ + NaOH -> NaC$ell$ + H2O}par

end{document}

UPDATE:
Maybe the ell from stix font package is more like you want it:
documentclass{article}
usepackage{stix}
usepackage{chemmacros}

begin{document}
ch{HC$ell$}par
ch{HC$ell$ + NaOH -> NaC$ell$ + H2O}par

end{document}

cgnieder · Answer

First things first: chemmacros does not provide chemical formulas. With standard settings it loads the package chemformula so lets assume you meant that package.

You can tell chemformula to use ℓ instead of l. Of course you need a font that has the letter. Compiled with LuaLaTeX this example gives:
documentclass{article}
usepackage{libertine}

usepackage{chemformula}
NewChemCompoundProperty{l}{ℓ}

begin{document}

ch{HCl + 1 I2}

end{document}

Or like @Roland's suggestion:
documentclass{article}

usepackage{chemformula}
NewChemCompoundProperty{l}{$ell$}

begin{document}

ch{HCl + 1 I2}

end{document}

BTW depending on the font the real issue might already be solved by itself:
documentclass{article}
usepackage{libertine}
begin{document}
1lI
end{document}

Write cursive l letter in chemical formula with chemmacros package

2 Answers

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question