Question

"Barium chloride reacts with aluminum sulfate to give aluminum chloride and precipitates of barium sulfate."

1. Translate the above statement into a chemical reaction.
2. State two types in which this reaction can be classified.

Answer 1

1. The chemical reaction can be written as: $\mathbf{3}{\mathbf{BaCl}}_{\mathbf{2}}\mathbf{\left(}\mathbf{aq}\mathbf{\right)}\mathbf{}\mathbf{+}\mathbf{}{\mathbf{Al}}_{\mathbf{2}}{\left({\mathrm{SO}}_4\right)}_{\mathbf{3}}\mathbf{\left(}\mathbf{aq}\mathbf{\right)}\mathbf{}\mathbf{}\mathbf{\to }\mathbf{}\mathbf{3}\underset{\mathbf{(}\mathbf{white}\mathbf{}\mathbf{ppt}\mathbf{.}\mathbf{)}}{{\mathbf{BaSO}}_{\mathbf{4}}\mathbf{\left(}\mathbf{s}\mathbf{\right)}}\mathbf{}\mathbf{+}\mathbf{2}{\mathbf{AlCl}}_{\mathbf{3}}\mathbf{\left(}\mathbf{aq}\mathbf{\right)}\mathbf{}\mathbf{}\mathbf{}\mathbf{}\mathbf{}\mathbf{}\mathbf{}\mathbf{}\mathbf{}\mathbf{}\mathbf{}\mathbf{}\mathbf{}\mathbf{}\mathbf{}\mathbf{}\mathbf{}\mathbf{}\mathbf{}\mathbf{}\mathbf{}\mathbf{}\mathbf{}\mathbf{}\mathbf{}\mathbf{}$ The white precipitates of barium sulfate can be seen during the reaction.
2. In a given reaction:

1. White precipitates of barium sulfate$\mathbf{\left(}{\mathbf{BaSO}}_{\mathbf{4}}\mathbf{\right)}$ form during the reaction indicating that the precipitation reaction takes place here.

2. Also, both the reacting species exchange their anions, therefore, forming two new compounds. Such a type of reaction is called a double displacement reaction.

Thus, in this reaction, two types of reaction can be seen that are a precipitation reaction and a double displacement reaction.