Home > Community > Why does sodium sulphate form a white precipitate when barium chloride is added to it? Does this show the presence of ions?
Upvote

17

Downvote
+ Inorganic chemistry
+ Chlorides
+ Science
+ Ions
+ Sodium
+ Chemistry
Posted by
Ludwig Nijholt

Why does sodium sulphate form a white precipitate when barium chloride is added to it? Does this show the presence of ions?

Ava Naeini  Follow

Because what is important is the formation of insoluble BaSO4 which will prove that there was sulphate in the sample being tested. Chloride or nitrate ions are not relevant therefore it doesn’t matter which is used as long as Barium is the cation in the reagent.

More

Upvote

VOTE

Downvote
Aida Ballal  Follow

This reaction takes advantage of the fact that barium sulfate is highly insoluble to drive what what would otherwise be an equilibrium process. The reaction products will be copper(II) chloride, which remains in solution, and barium sulfate, which precipitates as a white solid. The equation is:

CuSO4 + BaCl2 → CuCl2 + BaSO4

More

Upvote

VOTE

Downvote
Cheran Ilango  Follow

Most sulfates are water-soluble… calcium sulfate is not so soluble, and barium sulfate is as soluble as a brick…the webz quote [math]K_{sp}=4×10^{-10}[/math] for the barium salt…the which corresponds to a mass solubility of [math]approx ext{4•ppm}[/math] … i.e. [math]4•mg•L^{-1}[/math]

And we could represent the reaction by the equation…

[math]BaCl_{2}(aq) + Na_{2}SO_{4}(aq) longrightarrow BaSO_{4}(s)downarrow+2NaCl(aq)[/math]

…else, the net ionic equation…

[math]Ba^{2+} + SO_{4}^{2-} longrightarrow BaSO_{4}(s)downarrow[/math]

…does this show the presence of ions…?

More

Upvote

VOTE

Downvote
Biraza Sethani Academy Biraza Sethani Academy  Follow

This is a simple reaction.

Barium Chloride(BaCl2) and Aluminum sulphate(Al2(SO4)3) react in a normal condition and form thr following compound-

BaSO4 + AlCl3.

Barium sulphate + aluminum chloride.

I hope i helped.

More

Upvote

VOTE

Downvote
Don Barker  Follow

The barium ion reacts with the sulfate ion to form solid barium sulfate, which precipitates because it's insoluble in water.. The sodium and chloride ions remain dissolved in the solution.

More

Upvote

VOTE

Downvote
Brian Bilson  Follow

The white precipitate is barium sulfate which has a very low solubility in water.

Na2SO4 (aq) + BaCl2 (aq) → BaSO4 (s) + 2 NaCl (aq)

Ba^2+ + SO4^2- → BaSO4

More

Upvote

VOTE

Downvote
Anbuselvan Sellamuthu   Follow

while sodium will not displace the barium in BaSO4, the addition of NaCl will increase the solubility of BaSO4 (see graphs below).

More

Upvote

VOTE

Downvote
Dev Das  Follow

There is the possibility that the chloride ion will form a precipitate with metals (silver, lead, mercury, and to a lesser extent copper) and give a false positive result, while nitrates are always soluble.

More

Upvote

VOTE

Downvote
Daniel Hobbs  Follow

In general, the only ions which are coloured are the transition metals - the reason for that is rather more complex than I feel like going in to this morning. However, since Ba is not a transition metal, and sulphate is also not a coloured ion, the solid that settles out is white.

Remember: If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the precipitate!

More

Upvote

VOTE

Downvote