Sodium phosphate dodecahydate reacts with barium chloride dihydrate. If Na2SO4 is an unkown contaminant of sodium phosphate dodecahydrate, how does it presence affect yeild of sodium phosphate in the exexpiriment?
1 answer
Explain bot has it wrong. First, the equation between Na3PO4 and BaCl2 is not balanced correctly. While it is true that the addition of Na2SO4 may not DIRECTLY affect the mass of Na3PO4 it WILL affect the final mass Ba3(PO4)2 obtain BECAUSE there is less Na3PO4 initially. Follow through this. If the sample of Na3PO4 is contaminated with Na2SO4 that means there is less Na3PO4 in the sample initially; i.e., a 10 gram sample of pure Na3PO4 will yield 18.36 g Ba3(PO4)2 assuming the yield is 100%. If you take away Na3PO4 (say 1 g) and replace that with 1 g Na2SO4, the the 9 g Na3PO4 sample will yield 16.52 g Ba3(PO4)2. The 1 g Na2SO4 will yield 1.64 g BaSO4. The total of BaSO4 + Ba3(PO4)2 is 1.64 + 16.52 is 18.16 and that is less than 18.36 by a small amount. So it DOES matter.