$re = '/([0-9]+ )*[a-z\(₀-₉\)]+/i';
$str = '2 HCl + 12 Na + 3 ((Na₃Cl₂)₂HCl₄)₂₄ → 2 NaCl + H₂';
preg_match_all($re, $str, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($matches);
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php