Question

Write the cations and anions present (if any) in the following compounds

(a) ${\mathrm{CH}}_3\mathrm{COONa}$

Answer 1

Identifying the cation and anion:

• Sodium acetate is an ionic compound that dissociates into its ions in aqueous solution.
• The dissociation of Sodium acetate can be represented as:

$\underset{\mathrm{Sodium}\mathrm{acetate}}{{\mathrm{CH}}_3\mathrm{COONa}\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}\to \underset{\mathrm{Acetate}\mathrm{ion}}{{\mathrm{CH}}_3{\mathrm{COO}}^{-}\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Sodium}\mathrm{ion}}{{\mathrm{Na}}^{+}\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}$

Cations are the positively charged species while anions are the negatively charged species.

Compound	Cation	Anion
Type of ions	${\mathrm{Na}}^{+}$	${\mathrm{CH}}_3{\mathrm{COO}}^{-}$