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5 answers

yes and No.

When you dissolve Potassium Chloride (KCl) in water, it breaks up into ions (K+ and Cl-). Potassium Chloride is a strong electrolyte and (for all intensive purposes), this ionization will be complete...all of the KCl will becomes K+ and Cl- ions.

Water, too, will naturally break into ions to some extent, but not nearly as much as KCl. Water will break up into H+ and OH- ions, but the VAST majority will remain un-broken as H2O.

So now you have a solution of K+, Cl-, H+, OH- ions all mixing together.
It is certainly possible for a K+ ion to collide with a OH- ion to form KOH. It is also certainly possible for a H+ ion to collide with a Cl- ion to form HCl. But then look what just happened, you formed a strong acid (HCl) and a strong base (KOH). By "strong" I mean that they will naturally break up into ions completely in solution. So as soon as the acid and base form (so to speak), they immediately break up into ions and there is no net change. Also, any HCl and KOH which forms could also potentially react with each other. And what do you get when HCl and KOH react (acid-base reaction)....water and a salt. The salt would of course be KCl (which would break into ions) and the H2O would be the same water which originally formed the H+ and OH- ions in the first place.

So, long story short, there would be no net change. You would still end up with a solution of K+ and Cl- (also some H+ and OH-) which would appear exactly like the original KCl solution since there was no net ionic reaction.

All of these substances exist in a state of equilibrium in the solution. There is some equilibrium of the amount of K+ ions, Cl- ions, H+ and OH- ions, allowed in a solution. If the equilibrium is offset then things start to happen to re-establish equilibrium. In the case of KCl, KOH, HCl, the equilibrium exists so far to one side (the disassociated ions side) that for all intensive purposes we can treat these substances as completely broken up into ions when dissolved.

There are other substances which have different equilibriums that will behave as you are asking, however.
For example, Copper Chloride (CuCl2).
Copper Chloride is a strong electrolyte (similar to KCl). When CuCl2 is dissolved in water it will completely break up into Cu+2 and Cl- ions. The water, as before, will break up to a small degree into H+ and OH- ions.
But this time, when a OH- ion (actually two of them) collide with a Cu+2 ion...something happens. Cu(OH)2 is NOT a strong electrolyte and does not break into ions very readily. When this process occurs, the Cu(OH)2 which forms stays as Cu(OH)2.
Now that some of the water's OH- ions have been "consumed" by the Copper ion, there is an excess of H+ ion solution. What happens when these H+ ions collide with the Cl- ions? The same thing as before...they could form HCl, sure, but the HCl will just break up into ions again and no net change will happen. So there remains an excess of H+ ions in solution and as a result the pH of the solution will go down.

2007-01-21 07:57:11 · answer #1 · answered by mrjeffy321 7 · 0 0

It will and it will not. The thing is that an equilibrium would be maintained between various ions. So K+ Cl- H+ and OH- would all be present in solution. At some time it would be possible for one of the positively charged ion to combine with another negatively charged ion. So theoretically at some point a K+ would attach to an OH-. But you need to know that you wont be able to extract K+OH- together because the equilibrium for the following reaction favours towards the right hand side products
KOH - K+ + OH-

2007-01-21 07:20:42 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

No, there is really no attachment at all.

It is simply an electrostatic charge difference between the K+ and the HO- that is strong enough to pull K+ away from the Cl-.

Even then, the HO- and the K+ are just kind of sitting next to each other, not bonded or anything. Like 2 magnets...

Thats why dissolving the KCl is not considered a chemical reaction.

2007-01-21 08:13:27 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

No, greater ionic character skill that it has a much better tendency to dissociate into its anion and cation. And sodium isn't eolectronegative, it incredibly is electropositive, as is potassium. i don't have the information, yet the two compounds are ionic, even even with the undeniable fact that i think that KCl's ionic bonds could be somewhat weaker because of greater beneficial ionic radius of the ok ion (which skill that the constructive can charge is centred over a much better ionic quantity).

2016-12-14 08:41:06 · answer #4 · answered by ? 3 · 0 0

Yes. Its a double replacement reaction:
KCl + H2O<-->HCl + KOH

2007-01-21 07:19:21 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0 1

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