Hey guys, could someone explain how to do hydrolysis of salts to me, i still don't get how to do them :/ (like determining whether the salt is acid or base)
Thanks heaps!
When something is dissolved in water, the ions that form the compound are dissociated (e.g. Na
2CO
3(s) -> 2 Na
+(aq) + CO
32-(aq)). To determine the nature of the dissolved substance as acidic or basic, we need to look at the ions that are formed.
Take this example first. CO
32- is basic. However Na
+ is a neutral cation. Therefore the resulting solution is basic and the original salt was also basic.
Take NH
4Cl. NH
4+ is acidic, however Cl
- is a neutral cation. Therefore we have something acidic.
If we take NaCl, then both Na
+ and Cl
- are neutral so the result is neutral.
Simply put, analyse the cation and anion separately.