Question

A solution of potassium chloride when mixed with silver nitrate solution, an insoluble white substance is formed. Write the chemical reaction involved and also mention the type of chemical reaction?

Answer 1

• When Potassium chloride reacts with Silver nitrate, the products that are formed are Potassium nitrate and Silver chloride.
• This is called a Double displacement reaction, as both Potassium and silver are displacing each other in their compounds and thus forming Potassium nitrate and Silver chloride.
• The complete reaction is:

$\underset{\mathrm{Potassium}\mathrm{chloride}}{\mathrm{KCl}\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Silver}\mathrm{nitrate}}{{\mathrm{AgNO}}_3\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}\to \underset{\mathrm{Silver}\mathrm{chloride}\left(\mathrm{white}\right)}{\mathrm{AgCl}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)\left(\downarrow \right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Ptassium}\mathrm{nitrate}}{{\mathrm{KNO}}_3\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}$

• Another type of reaction that is involved here is the Precipitation reaction.
• This is because both the compounds$(\mathrm{KCl}\mathrm{and}{\mathrm{AgNO}}_3)$ are ionic and they form an insoluble salt of Silver chloride which is known as precipitate and thus the reaction is called Precipitation reaction.
• This precipitate of Silver chloride is white in colour.