Question

Explain why aqueous solution of sodium carbonate is alkaline.

Answer 1

Hint: Sodium carbonate is generally represented by the chemical formula $N{{a}_{2}}C{{O}_{3}}$ which can also be known by some other names called soda ash, washing soda and soda crystals. It is generally kept in the category of inorganic compounds.

Complete answer:
Sodium carbonate is found in many hydrated forms most of them are white in color which is soluble in water which yields an alkaline solution in water. Sodium carbonate is generally extracted from the ashes of wood that’s why it is also known as soda ash.
Here aqueous solutions refers to the water solution when sodium carbonate get dissolved in water then it gets hydrolyzed and forms a weak acid where we know that acids are those substances which contain ${{H}^{+}}$ ions when sodium carbonate hydrolyze then the acid is weak i.e. carbonic acid and other product is sodium hydroxide which is a base and base are those substances which have $O{{H}^{-}}$ ions in them. Due to this reason sodium carbonate is alkaline in nature when it gets dissolved in water and the above discussion can be shown by the following reaction:
\[N{{a}_{2}}C{{O}_{3}}+{{H}_{2}}O\to {{H}_{2}}C{{O}_{3}}+NaOH\]
Here \[{{H}_{2}}C{{O}_{3}}\]is the weak acid known by the name carbonic acid and \[NaOH\] is sodium hydroxide which is base.

Note:
When we dissolve sodium carbonate in a distilled water then sodium bicarbonate gets dissociated into ions known as cation and anion where cation are positively charged species and anions are negatively charged species and distilled water is the water which is free from ions.