Sodium carbonate, sodium hydrogencarbonate - the most interesting

Chemistry is an interesting science that explains most of the processes and phenomena that surround us. Moreover, these phenomena are not limited to simple dissolution of sugar in a cup of tea or hydrolysis of substances, which is often the basis of an industrial process, but also as complex as the creation of organic matter without the participation of a living organism. In other words, chemistry is the science of life in terms of most of the phenomena that surround us. Chemistry can tell everything about acids, bases, alkalis and salts. One of the latter will be discussed later - sodium carbonate. Let's look at everything related to sodium carbonate, starting with a chemical formula and ending with application in industry and life.

So, sodium carbonate, the formula of which is written as follows: Na2CO3, is a salt of carbonic acid, which is also called the sodium salt of carbonic acid, or soda ash. This substance looks like a simple white powder, consisting of small grains, which has no smell and with a rather unpleasant taste. It can cause severe poisoning and ulcers of the gastrointestinal tract if it gets into the human body in large quantities. The structural formula is as follows: two atoms of sodium are connected by one pair of electrons with oxygen atoms (one oxygen per atom of sodium), oxygen atoms are bound by single bonds to the carbon atom, and carbon, in turn, is connected by four (two pairs) electrons With an oxygen atom. Thus, we see the following interesting picture: the sodium atoms become positive ions with charges +1, oxygen atoms are negative and have a charge of -2, and the carbon that gave up four electrons has a charge of +4. Thus, sodium carbonate, or rather, its molecule, has a polarity in some places.

There is also a slightly different salt: sodium hydrogencarbonate, which has the chemical formula NaHCO3, which can also cause poisoning if it enters the body. Sodium hydrogen carbonate reacts with metals more active than sodium, while sodium is reconstituted. This salt can also react with the alkali of the more active metal, and sodium will be reduced. If the hydrolysis of this salt is carried out, it should be noted that sodium hydroxide is a strong alkali, and the carbonic acid is of a rather weak nature, so the base will first turn out and the test tube will contain an alkaline medium, which can be recognized with phenolphthalein Salt in crimson color).

If we talk about sodium carbonate, whose chemical properties practically do not differ from the chemical properties of bicarbonate, it can be noted that if electrolysis of the melt and a solution of this salt is carried out, then the "behavior" will be completely identical for them. Let's consider.

Electrolysis of the melt of sodium carbonate will result in the release of carbonate ion and two moles of sodium. If we carry out the hydrolysis of a solution of this salt, we get the following picture: hydrogen will be reduced at the anode, a hydroxo group at the cathode, in the end it turns out that there will remain a carbonate anion and two moles of sodium.

It can also be noted that sodium carbonate reacts with such substances as stronger acids, for example, nitric, hydrochloric or sulfuric acids . There is a substitution, that is, carbonic acid is restored, which immediately decomposes into water and carbon dioxide or carbon dioxide, and the salt of the acid is obtained, which was added to sodium carbonate.

Approximately the same picture is obtained if you add a soluble (and no other, otherwise the reaction will not go!) Salt of a stronger acid, but the products of the reaction should result in gas, sediment or water.