# What does the “! Incomplete \ifx” error mean? [closed]

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[version=3]{mhchem}
\usepackage{siunitx}

\begin{document}

\begin{align*}
\ce{PH &= -\log  \ce{[H+]}} \\
-\ce{PH} &= \log \ce{[H+]} \\
10^{-\ce{PH}} &= \ce{[H+]} \\
\end{align*}
\end{document}


gives

(/home/peter/texlive/2011/texmf-dist/tex/latex/siunitx/config/siunitx-abbreviat
ions.cfg)
(/home/peter/texlive/2011/texmf-dist/tex/latex/siunitx/config/siunitx-binary.cf
g)
! Incomplete \ifx; all text was ignored after line 11.
<inserted text>
\fi
l.11 \end{align*}


What is wrong?

-

## closed as too localized by Werner, egreg, diabonas, lockstep, Stefan Kottwitz♦Sep 30 '11 at 19:22

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this question was closed as too localized, but it actually helped me –  simona Apr 19 '13 at 15:36

The first \ce is missing a }, while the second one has one too much. So you should have
\begin{align*}