Question

What is the chemical formula of Sodium tetrahydroxoaluminate (III)?

Answer 1

Hint: The chemical formula of a compound is the symbolic representation of the composition of a compound. Generally, breaking up of the name helps with the elements present in the given compound.

Complete step by step solution:
Here Sodium is given, which is represented by the symbol “Na”.
- Tetrahyrdoxo here means, tetra= four and hydroxy group is represented by the letters “OH”.
- Aluminate here is aluminium represented by the symbol “Al”.
- Aluminate (III) refers to the oxidation state of aluminium i.e +3.
Hence, the formula becomes, \[Na[Al{(OH)_4}]\].

Additional Information:
The higher the temperature, the higher is the pressure needed. With hot concentrated sodium hydroxide solution and at high pressure aluminium oxide reacts with sodium to give a solution of sodium tetrahydroxoaluminate.
Some reactions in which Sodium tetrahydroxoaluminate is involved are given below -
1) \[2Al + 2MOH + 6{H_2}O \to 2M[Al{(OH)_4}] + 3{H_2} \uparrow \], where M = Na, K
2) \[Al{(OH)_3} + MOH \to M[Al{(OH)_4}]\] , where M = Na, K
3) \[Na[Al{(OH)_4}](at800^\circ C) \to NaAl{O_2} + 2{H_2}O\]
 4) \[NaAl{O_2} + 2{H_2}O \to Na[Al{(OH)_4}]\]
Note: Always remember the symbols representing the chemical names and the rules for naming them.
Here the rules for naming a co-ordination compound are:-
- The ligands are named first then metal.
- The charge of the metal is indicated using the Roman numerals and are enclosed in the parenthesis after metal name.
- The ligands are named in an alphabetical order before the metal ion.
- Ligands that include a numerical prefix in the name use the prefixes bis for 2, tris for 3, or tetrakis for 4 to indicate their number.
- If the complex ion is an anion, we drop the ending of the metal name and add –ate.