Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
reactant solutions and may be represented by the net ionic equation, which sim-
ilarly does not mention any other ions that may be present.
Practice Problem 9.2
Write a net ionic equation for the reaction of
with
AgC
2
H
3
O
2
CuCl
2
.
Be careful not to misinterpret the name
net ionic equation.
It is not neces-
sarily true that all the substances appearing in such an equation are ionic. Cova-
lent compounds often occur in net ionic equations. Also, just because the
formula for a complete compound is written in such an equation does not mean
that the compound is not ionic; it might simply be insoluble.
An important type of reaction is the reaction of a strong acid with a strong
base (see Table 9.1) to produce a salt and water. In solution, strong acids and
bases exist completely in the form of their ions. All salts, the products of reac-
tions of acids with bases, may also be regarded as completely ionic (but not all
are water soluble). We may therefore write net ionic equations for this type of
reaction. The reaction of chloric acid and potassium hydroxide is typical:
1.
HClO
3
(aq)
KOH(aq) £ KClO
3
(aq)
H
2
O(
/
)
In solution, both of the reactants and the potassium chlorate are ionic, but the
water is covalent, of course.
2. The ionic equation for the reaction is
H
(aq)
ClO
3
(aq)
K
(aq)
OH
(aq) £
K
(aq)
ClO
3
(aq)
H
2
O(
/
)
3. Eliminating the spectator ions from both sides of this equation yields the
net ionic equation:
H
(aq)
OH
(aq) £ H
2
O(
/
)
Note that water, which is molecular, not ionic, is included in this net ionic
equation.
EXAMPLE 9.3
Write a net ionic equation for the reaction of aqueous
Ba(OH)
2
with aqueous
HNO
3
.
Solution
1. The total equation is
Ba(OH)
2
(aq)
2 HNO
3
(aq) £ Ba(NO
3
)
2
(aq)
2 H
2
O(
/
)
2. The ionic equation is
Ba
2
(aq)
2 OH
(aq)
2 H
(aq)
2 NO
3
(aq) £
Be careful with the coefficients
of the ions in the ionic equation.
Ba
2
(aq)
2 NO
3
(aq)
2 H
2
O(
/
)
3. Eliminating the spectator ions yields
2 OH
(aq)
2 H
(aq) £ 2 H
2
O(
/
)
