Question

How can compounds be broken down?

Answer 1

Hint: Compounds are the substances which are present in many forms around us. Be it the air we breathe or the water we drink, compounds are present everywhere. It is often confused with the term mixture but compounds and mixtures are two different entities. Compounds can be defined as the substances formed due to two or more elements getting chemically combined in fixed proportion.


Complete answer:
One element can form different compounds with different elements. Sometimes, the same elements in different conditions form different compounds. It depends on the proportion or the amount of the element present in that particular compound.
Compounds are the substances that can be broken down only via chemical means unlike elements. Elements cannot be broken down by any way into sub parts. There are various chemical methods which are favourable in the breakdown of compounds. One such method is the thermal decomposition. For example, when water needs to be broken down into diatomic elements of hydrogen and oxygen, this method is used by the process of electrolysis. The reaction for the breakdown of water is as follows:
$2{H_2}O(l) \to 2{H_2}(g) + {O_2}(g)$
Another example is the breakdown of the salt sodium chloride into the elemental sodium and gas of chlorine by the process of electrolysis. The reaction for the same is:
\[2NaCl\left( s \right) \to 2Na\left( s \right) + C{l_2}(g)\]

Note:The properties after the formation of compounds is different from that of the elements by which the compound is formed. One very simple example which we can relate to from everyday life is sodium chloride which is made from sodium which is a very reactive metal and chlorine which is a deadly gas and yet sodium chloride is completely neutral in nature.