Chemistry Question: What is a salt? and does it have to contain metal?

Question

Got to teach this to KS3 yr 9's and am trying to get them to identify the salts from washing powder packets etc

Answer 1

hope this helps http://cgg.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Library.sr/CT/artb/k/758/Salt.htm

Answer 2

A chemical salt contains an acidic anion such as sulphate, nitrate,chloride, ethanoate etc., It is a negatively charged species.
It must also contain a cation generally metal, but ammonium in ammonium nitrate is a cation but a non-metal. It is a positively charged species.
The charges on the two ions must balance. that is say 2+ with a 2- etc.
Not all chemical salts are strong electrolytes - The strong electrolytes dissolve readily in water, such as sodium chloride.
As a general note :-
All group I metal salts such as sodium, dissolve readily in water.
All nitrates are soluble.
Carbonates & Sulphates are generally insoluable except when combined with Grp I metals.
Halogen salts show degrees of solubility.

Answer 3

A salt is a compound of a positively charged ion (The base)and a negatively charged anion.In inoganic chemistry the base's are always metals(some times the ammonium ion,NH4OH, is counted as inorganic as well)So you see that not all salts contain a metal.As examples The salts ammonium chloride NH4Cl. and ammonium sulphate
(NH4)2 SO4 contain no metals at all.

Answer 4

In chemistry, any compound formed from an acid and a base through the replacement of all or part of the hydrogen in the acid by a metal or electropositive radical. Common salt is sodium chloride.

Sodium chlorideor common salt is the chemical compound NaCl, composed of the elements sodium and chloride . Salt occurs naturally in many parts of the world as the mineral ( 1 2 ) halite and as mixed evaporites in salt lakes. Seawater has lots of salt; it contains an average of 2.7% (by weight) NaCl, or 78 million metric tons per cubic kilometer, an inexhaustible supply (note: seawater also contains other dissolved solids; salt represents about 77% of the Total Dissolved Solids). Underground salt deposits are found in both bedded. sedimentary layers and domal deposits. Deposits have been found to have encapsulated ancient microorganisms including bacteria. Some salt is one the surface, the dried-up residue of ancient seas like the famed Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. Salt even arrives on earth from outer space in meteors and its presence on the planet Mars makes scientists think life may exist there (in fact, scientists speculate that salt-loving bacteria live in underground water on Mars -- as they have survived in suspended animation for 250 million years in Texas). Conversely, surface salt depositions and man-made saltworks can be seen from space. In ocean coastal areas, saltwater can "intrude" on underground freshwater supplies, complicating the lives of those who provide our drinking water supplies.

Answer 5

a salt is a compound made from a metal and a non-metal. the most common salt is NaCl, sodium (Na) is a metal and chlorine (Cl) is a non-metal. YES it MUST contain a metal otherwise it is not a salt.
why are you teaching this if you do not know it yourself? read a few text books

Answer 6

A salt should contain a metal - should you be teaching KS3 if you do not know this?

Answer 7

salt is NaCl which means sodium chloride
sodium is a metal