Question

What is the dissociation reaction of sodium acetate in water?

Answer 1

Hint: Dissociation reaction can be defined as a chemical reaction in which a compound breaks apart into two or more compounds. This reaction takes place in a reversible way where the molecules differentiate or break into smaller particles such as atoms, ions or radicals. Dissociation reaction can be recognized when there is only one reactant and multiple products.
The general formula of dissociation reaction is:
$AB\to A+B$

Complete answer:
When a dissociation reaction takes place in water, due to the polar nature of water, the ionic compounds dissolve in it. The positive ions of the compound get attracted to the negative pole of the water molecule, while the negative ions of the compound get attracted to the positive pole of the water molecule.
In the question, we are given sodium acetate as the compound that will react with water molecules while undergoing dissociation reaction. When sodium acetate (or$C{H}_{3}COONa$ ) dissolves in water, it breaks and forms two different types of ions- $C{H}_{3}CO{O}^{-}$ and$N{a}^{+}$ ; whereas the water molecule will dissociate into $H^{+}$ and $O{H}^{-}$ ions. $C{H}_{3}CO{O}^{-}$ will then react with $H^{+}$ to form acetic acid ($C{H}_{3}COOH$ ), which is a weak acid and $N{a}^{+}$ will react will $O{H}^{-}$ to form sodium hydroxide ($NaOH$ ), which is a strong base, making the solution alkaline in nature.
The dissociation reaction of sodium acetate in water can be shown as:
$C{H}_{3}COONa+H_{2}O\to C{H}_{3}COOH+NaOH$
Therefore, the products formed after the dissociation reaction in water are acetic acid ($C{H}_{3}COOH$ ) and sodium hydroxide ($NaOH$ ).

Note:
Some molecular compounds such as water and acids form electrolytic solutions, although moat dissociation reactions involve ionic compounds in water or aqueous solution. When water molecules dissociate, it breaks into ionic crystals. This happens due to the attraction between positive and negative ions in the crystals and polarity of water.