Question

Taking sodium carbonate as an example, give the meaning of the following terms:

(a) Water of crystallization

Answer 1

Sodium Carbonate

• The chemical formula for Hydrated Sodium carbonate is $\mathrm{(}{\mathrm{Na}}_{\mathrm{2}}{\mathrm{CO}}_{\mathrm{3}}\mathrm{.}\mathrm{10}{\mathrm{H}}_{\mathrm{2}}\mathrm{O}\mathrm{)}$.
• The number of water molecules in Sodium carbonate $\mathrm{(}{\mathrm{Na}}_{\mathrm{2}}{\mathrm{CO}}_{\mathrm{3}}\mathrm{.}\mathrm{10}{\mathrm{H}}_{\mathrm{2}}\mathrm{O}\mathrm{)}$ is $10$.

Water of crystallization:

• In the salt crystal, the number of water molecules present is called water of crystallization.
• Most of the salts have a fixed percentage of water in the crystal , called Hydrates.

Water of crystallization in Sodium carbonate $\mathrm{(}{\mathrm{Na}}_{\mathrm{2}}{\mathrm{CO}}_{\mathrm{3}}\mathrm{.}\mathrm{10}{\mathrm{H}}_{\mathrm{2}}\mathrm{O}\mathrm{)}$ is $10$.