salt, chemical compound: Characteristics and Classification of Salts

The most familiar salt is sodium chloride, the principal component of common table salt. Sodium chloride, NaCl, and water, H₂O, are formed by neutralization of sodium hydroxide, NaOH, a base, with hydrogen chloride, HCl, an acid: HCl+NaOH→NaCl+H₂O. Most salts are ionic compounds (see chemical bond); they are made up of ions rather than molecules. The chemical formula for an ionic salt is an empirical formula; it does not represent a molecule but shows the proportion of atoms of the elements that make up the salt. The formula for sodium chloride, NaCl, indicates that equal numbers of sodium and chlorine atoms combine to form the salt. In the reaction of sodium with chlorine, each sodium atom loses an electron, becoming positively charged, and each chlorine atom gains an electron, becoming negatively charged (see oxidation and reduction); there are equal numbers of positively charged sodium ions and negatively charged chloride ions in sodium chloride. The ions in a solid salt are usually arranged in a definite crystalline structure, each positive ion being associated with a fixed number of negative ions, and vice versa.

A salt that has neither hydrogen (H) nor hydroxyl (OH) in its formula, e.g., sodium chloride (NaCl), is called a normal salt. A salt that has hydrogen in its formula, e.g., sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO₃), is called an acid salt. A salt that has hydroxyl in its formula, e.g., basic lead nitrate (Pb[OH]NO₃), is called a basic salt. Since a salt may react with a solvent to yield different ions than were present in the salt (see hydrolysis), a solution of a normal salt may be acidic or basic; e.g., trisodium phosphate, Na₃PO₄, dissolves in and reacts with water to form a basic solution.

In addition to being classified as normal, acid, or basic, salts are categorized as simple salts, double salts, or complex salts. Simple salts, e.g., sodium chloride, contain only one kind of positive ion (other than the hydrogen ion in acid salts). Double salts contain two different positive ions, e.g., the mineral dolomite, or calcium magnesium carbonate, CaMg(CO₃)₂. Alums are a special kind of double salt. Complex salts, e.g., potassium ferricyanide, K₃Fe(CN)₆, contain a complex ion that does not dissociate in solution. A hydrate is a salt that includes water in its solid crystalline form; Glauber's salt and Epsom salts are hydrates.

Salts are often grouped according to the negative ion they contain, e.g., bicarbonate or carbonate, chlorate, chloride, cyanide, fulminate, nitrate, phosphate, silicate, sulfate, or sulfide.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• Preparation of Salts
• Characteristics and Classification of Salts

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