The hydrolysis reactions are best think of from a point of view of two different, consecutive steps.
First step: the salt dissolves:
1. - Na2CO3 (s) --> 2Na (+) (aq) + CO3 (-2) (aq)
And, for the second step, to find out which ion will react with the water. The ions which will react are those which can be imagined coming from weak acids or bases. Now, the number of these species is enormous, and nobody should be dum enough to remember all of them. On the other hand, the number of strong bases and acids are easy to remember, for they are but a handful. The strong bases are those derived from the metals of Groups 1 and 2, except, in this case, Be and Mg. The reason is that those are ionic things, which liberate OH (-) ions to the aqueous solutions. All other hydroxides are somewhat covalent, and therefore are not prone to liberate OH (-) ions to water, and, as a result, are not basic.
Following this reasoning: if the salt being considered forms Na (+) (aq) ions, and if we consider that this cation comes from a base, that base should be NaOH, which, from our reasoning, is ionic, and therefore, very strong base.
Well, if NaOH is a strong base, it is implicit that the solubilization
NaOH (s) --> Na (+) + OH (-) (aq)
will not reverse, which is the same to say that the reaction with the solvent
Na (+) (aq) + H2O (l) --> NaOH (s) + H (+) (aq)
should be impossible to accomplish.
With the strong acids it is the same. You can consider strong only the acids HClO4, H2SO4, HNO3 and H3PO4. Note that these can be written (HO)ClO3, (HO)2SO2, (HO)NO2, (HO)3PO, all of them with the acidic H(+) on oxygens linked to elements which bear very electronegative oxygens and therefore should be very easy to loose to water to generate the very stable anions ClO4 (-), HSO3 (-), NO3 (-) and H2PO3 (-). These anions should not recombine with water to regenerate the original acids, which is the same to write that the reaction
NO3 (-) + H2O --> HNO3 + HO (-)
will never ocurr.
Well, now you have an idea of what to think of strong acids and strong bases. Their ions will not react with water.
Only those cations and anions which can formally be derived from weak acids and weak bases will react with water. The ion carbonate, for instance, will. The acid from which it is formally derived is the carbonic, which is not on our list of strong, so it must be a weak acid. It should react with water on a second step:
2. - CO3 (-2) (aq) + H2O (l) <-> HCO3 (-) + OH (-)
and the solutions of sodium carbonate should become very basic, as the result of the hydrolysis of the anion. The net result of the dissolution of sodium carbonate in water shall then account for the two steps outlined above:
step 1: dissolution;
step two: choice of which ion comes from which weak acid, or base.
final: the ion from the weak whatever hydrolyses.
This is a very nice thing. To know why this is what it is, is a search for knowledge that leads many folks to study chemistry. Apparently, the rules of the game are simple, eh?
2007-09-05 21:43:46
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answer #4
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answered by Stanlei K 5
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use the mass conservation rule in the equation of hydrolysis
2016-04-10 02:51:40
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answer #5
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answered by Anonymous
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