Question

(i) Carbonate of metal $‘X’$is abundant in earth crust and its hydroxide is used in ‘white washing’. Identify metal $‘X’$.

(ii) How will you convert this carbonate into oxide? Name the process and write its equation.

Answer 1

(i) Thousands of different minerals and other valuable compounds are found in the earth's crust, which are used by people for a variety of reasons.

Calcium is one of the such minerals that is abundant in the earth's crust.

The carbonate ($C{O}_3^{2-}$) of Calcium ($Ca$) metal exists in the form of limestone or Calcium carbonate ($CaC{O}_3$) in earth crust and the hydroxide of Calcium ($Ca$) which is used in ‘white washing’ is $Ca{\left(OH\right)}_2$.

So, the metal $‘X’$ is Calcium ($Ca$).

(ii) The conversion of Calcium carbonate ($CaC{O}_3$) is as follows.

$\underset{Calciumcarbonate}{CaC{O}_3\left(s\right)}\stackrel{∆}{\to }\underset{Calciumoxide}{CaO\left(s\right)}+\underset{Carbondioxide}{C{O}_2\left(g\right)}$

The above chemical reaction is called thermal decomposition process, here we can convert limestone ($CaC{O}_3$) into its oxide form ($CaO$).