When aqueous solutions of potassium hypochlorite and nitric acid are mixed, an aqueous solution of potassium nitrate and hypochlorous acid results. Write the net ionic equation for the reaction.
Use H+ for the hydronium ion.
To write the net ionic equation for the reaction between potassium hypochlorite (KClO) and nitric acid (HNO3), we first need to know the chemical formulas of the compounds involved.
The chemical formula for potassium hypochlorite is KClO.
The chemical formula for nitric acid is HNO3.
The products of the reaction are potassium nitrate (KNO3) and hypochlorous acid (HOCl).
Now, let's write the balanced molecular equation:
KClO (aq) + HNO3 (aq) --> KNO3 (aq) + HOCl (aq)
To write the net ionic equation, we need to separate the soluble ionic compounds into ions and eliminate the spectator ions (ions that appear on both sides of the equation without undergoing a chemical change).
The dissociation of potassium hypochlorite into ions is:
KClO (aq) --> K+ (aq) + ClO- (aq)
The dissociation of nitric acid into ions is:
HNO3 (aq) --> H+ (aq) + NO3- (aq)
The ions K+ and NO3- do not undergo any change during the reaction and are spectator ions.
Therefore, the net ionic equation for the reaction is:
ClO- (aq) + H+ (aq) --> HOCl (aq)
In this net ionic equation, we have eliminated the spectator ions (K+ and NO3-) to focus on the ions that are involved in the actual chemical change.
The first step is to write the balanced molecular equation for the reaction.
The molecular equation can be written as:
2KClO + 2HNO3 -> 2KNO3 + 2HClO
Now, we need to write the complete ionic equation by breaking down all the soluble ionic compounds into their respective ions.
2K+ + 2ClO- + 2H+ + 2NO3- -> 2K+ + 2NO3- + 2H+ + 2ClO-
We can see that the potassium ions (K+) and nitrate ions (NO3-) are present on both sides of the equation. These ions are called spectator ions and can be eliminated from the equation.
Therefore, the net ionic equation will be:
2ClO- + 2H+ -> 2HClO