Reactions in Water

A POGIL activity by Dr. Stephen Prilliman

WHY?

Writing reaction equations is a way of predicting what reactions will take place between
two substances. Sometimes our “paper and pencil” chemistry disagrees with what we see
in the lab. When aqueous solutions of compounds are mixed some reactions are observed
to occur while other do not. We resolve this conundrum by using a notation called net
ionic equations that we will learn about in this activity.

Before you begin you should understand:

 Naming of binary compounds

 Writing chemical formulae
 Predicting products for double displacement reactions

Before you leave today you should be able to:

 Write simple net ionic reactions given any two reactants.

Definitions

A solution is a homogeneous mixture of a solid, liquid or gas in a liquid. The liquid present in
greatest amount is called the solvent. Whatever is dissolved in the liquid is called the solute.

An aqueous solution is a solution where the solvent is water.

A compound is said to be soluble if it readily dissolves in water and does not fall out of solution
(precipitate) if left for an extended period of time.

Model I: Rules of Solubility in Aqueous Solutions

The following solid compounds are taken and placed in water to determine if they are soluble.
The results are shown in the charter below. An X indicates that the compound will not dissolve
in water. If it does dissolve no mark is made.

POGIL Workshop Activity © Dr. Stephen Prilliman, Harding Charter Preparatory High School
E-mail: [email protected]
Author grants the right to copy and edit for educational purposes
 The top row shows the cation of the compound. The far left column shows the anion of the
compound. For example, Mg(OH)2 is insoluble. MgBr2 is soluble. AgCl is insoluble.

NH4+ Li+ Na+ K+ Mg+ Ca2+ Sr2+ Ba2+ Ag+ Pb2+ Hg2+ Fe3+ Cu2+ Zn2+
NO3
C2H3O2
Cl X X X
Br X X X
I X X X
SO42 X X X X X
OH X X X X X X X
S X X X X X X X X X X
CO32 X X X X X X X X X X
PO4 X X X X X X X X X X

Solubility rules

The observations above are summarized according to the solubility rules.

All compounds containing Group I ions and NH4+ are soluble

All compounds containing acetate (C2H3O2) and nitrate (NO3) are soluble

All compounds containing chloride (Cl-), bromide (Br-) and iodide (I-) are soluble except Ag+,
Hg22+ and Pb2+ which are insoluble

All compounds containing sulfate (SO42-) are soluble except Ca2+, Sr2+, Ba2+, Hg2+ Ag+ and Pb2+
which are insoluble

All compounds hydroxide (OH-) and oxide (O2-) are insoluble except Group I and Ca2+, Sr2+ and
Ba2+ which are soluble

All compounds containing carbonate (CO32-), phosphate (PO43-), chromate (CrO42-) are insoluble
except for Group I and NH4+ which are soluble

POGIL Workshop Activity © Dr. Stephen Prilliman, Harding Charter Preparatory High School
E-mail: [email protected]
Author grants the right to copy and edit for educational purposes
Questions

1. Choose three compounds from the chart above and, using the solubility rules, verify that the
chart and the rules agree.

Compound 1 _______________

Compound 2 _______________

Compound 3 _______________

Determine whether each of the following compounds are soluble or insoluble using the solubility
rules. Double check by comparing with the table above.

2. Calcium oxide 3. Strontium hydroxide 4. Silver chloride

5. Silver iodide 6. Calcium sulfate 7. Potassium nitrate

8. Sodium phosphate 9. Barium acetate 10. Iron (II) nitrate

11. Lead (IV) carbonate 12. Rubidium hydroxide 13. Magnesium phosphate

14. Using the solubility rules, not the chart,, write the chemical formula of 5 compounds which
are insoluble other than those in Exercises 1-10.

15. Using the solubility rules, not the chart,, write the chemical formulae of 5 compounds which
are soluble other than those in Exercises 1-10.

Model 2: Net ionic reactions

When a soluble salt is placed in water, it separates into its ions. For example, sodium chloride is
soluble.

NaCl + H2O  Na+ + Cl

Example 1: Sodium nitrate reacts with potassium acetate in an aqueous solution.

In double displacement reactions, two ionic compounds react and switch cations.

NaNO3 + KC2H3O2  KNO3 + NaC2H3O2

POGIL Workshop Activity © Dr. Stephen Prilliman, Harding Charter Preparatory High School
E-mail: [email protected]
Author grants the right to copy and edit for educational purposes
According to this “pencil and paper” reaction, potassium nitrate an sodium acetate are produced.
However, if this reaction is actually carried out in an aqueous solution, nothing happens.

If we investigate this from the concept of a net ionic reaction, we can see why. First, we write all
the compounds that soluble as ions.

Na+ + NO3 + K+ + C2H3O2  K+ + NO3 + Na+ + C2H3O2

Next, we cross out any ions that are present on both the left (reactants) side and right (products)
side of the reaction.

Na+ + NO3 + K+ + C2H3O2  K+ + NO3 + Na+ + C2H3O2

The ions we cross out, which are unchanged on either side, are called spectator ions (they are
just “standing around watching”, hence spectator).

Both of the compounds on the right hand (products) side of the reaction are soluble. Therefore,
no solid forms and no reaction occurs. The ions are all simply floating around together in
solution.

Example 2: Strontium nitrate solution reacts with a potassium sulfate solution.

Sr(NO3)2 + K2SO4  KNO3 + SrSO4 Predict products

sol sol sol insol Determine solubility

Sr2+ + NO3 + K+ + SO42  K+ + NO3 + SrSO4 Write all soluble compounds as ions

Sr2+ + NO3 + K+ + SO42  K+ + NO3 + SrSO4 Cross out spectator ions

Sr2+ + SO42  SrSO4 Write remaining ions/compounds

This final equation is the net ionic equation.

Key Questions

1. In Example 1, what ions are spectators?

2. In Example 2, what ions are spectators?

3. In Example 2, what insoluble compound is formed?

4. For the reaction written below, what ions are spectators?

POGIL Workshop Activity © Dr. Stephen Prilliman, Harding Charter Preparatory High School
E-mail: [email protected]
Author grants the right to copy and edit for educational purposes
 Li+ + CO32 + Sr2+ + Cl  SrCO3 + Li+ + Cl

5. For the reaction in question 4, what insoluble compound is produced?

6. In example 1, why is there no reaction when solutions of NaNO3 and KC2H3O2 are mixed?

7. If a reaction takes place in water, when is a reaction observed to occur? When is it observe
not to occur?

Exercises

1. Write the net ionic equations for each of the following. Follow the same steps given in
example 2 above.

(a) Fe(C2H3O2)2 + Ca(OH)2 

(b) KI + Pb(NO3)2 

(c) MgSO4 + AgNO3 

(d) Dilute potassium hydroxide is added to a solution of barium chloride.

(f) A solution of calcium hydroxide is added to a solution of iron sulfate

2. Write a general procedure for how to solve net ionic reactions (3-4 sentences)

POGIL Workshop Activity © Dr. Stephen Prilliman, Harding Charter Preparatory High School
E-mail: [email protected]
Author grants the right to copy and edit for educational purposes