Question

What happens when egg-shell is added to nitric acid?

Answer 1

Hint: Egg-shell is made up of calcium carbonate. The gas evolved in this reaction turns lime water milky. Now try to answer this accordingly.

Complete step by step answer:
Let’s discuss the stepwise answer to this question -
-Egg-shells are made up of calcium carbonate. When we add egg-shell to nitric acid, the Nitric acid reacts with calcium carbonate (which is present in the egg-shell) to form calcium nitrate, carbon dioxide gas, and water.
-The carbon dioxide gas released from this reaction turns lime-water milky.
-Here we can also write the Equation involved in this process -
$CaCO_{ 3 }(s)\quad +\quad 2HNO_{ 3 }(aq)\quad \rightarrow \quad Ca(NO_{ 3 })_{ 2 }(aq)\quad +\quad CO_{ 2 }[(g)\quad +\quad H_{ 2 }O(l)$
Egg-shell + Nitric Acid $\rightarrow$ Calcium Nitrate + Carbon dioxide + Water
Therefore, we described the reaction of egg-shell with nitric acid.

Additional information:
 Here we can see in the reaction calcium nitrate is one of the products. Calcium nitrate is mainly produced as a fertilizer and for wastewater treatment. Calcium nitrate is a source of both calcium and nitrogen, for plants.

Note:
-This Carbon dioxide produced here dissolves in water and slowly reacts with water to produce carbonic acid.
-When $CO_{ 2 }$ is bubbled into limewater, a cloudy white solution is also observed from a reaction between $Ca(OH)_{ 2 }$ and either $CO_{ 2 }$ or $H_{ 2 }CO_{ 3 }$ to form an insoluble calcium carbonate precipitate.