Question

How to complete this reaction: $ HN{{O}_{3}}+{{H}_{2}}O $ ?

Answer 1

Hint The answer is based on the general concept of reaction of strong acid with water which produces ions. Write the balanced reaction and find the ions formed which gives the correct answer.

Complete step – by – step answer:
In the previous classes of chemistry, we have studied about the concept of writing the balanced equation and also about the reaction of acids and bases with water.
Let us now see what happens when strong acid reacts with water.
- Nitric acid that is $ HN{{O}_{3}} $ is the concentrated acid and is a very strong acid and this ionizes completely in aqueous solution.
- The physical reaction taking place when concentrated nitric acid reacts with water is that it decomposes into nitrogen dioxide, water and oxygen which forms a brownish yellow solution.
- This solution is nothing but the aqueous solution of nitrogen and therefore this further ionizes completely into hydronium ion and nitrate ions in it.
- The reaction which takes place sequentially is that prior the aqueous solution of nitric acid is formed and as the acid is the strong acid, it later ionizes into hydronium and nitrate ions.
- The reaction is depicted as shown below,
\[HN{{O}_{3}}+{{H}_{2}}O\to HN{{O}_{3}}(aq)\to {{H}_{3}}{{O}^{+}}+NO_{3}^{-}\]
The important thing is that the nitric acid is ionic in nature and therefore is soluble in water and this makes it a strong electrolyte.

Note: Note that nitric acid being a strong acid in nature acts as a powerful oxidizing agent that is it acts as an electron acceptor in oxidation – reaction reactions and is a very useful and powerful reagent.