Question

Is alum powder the same as baking soda?

Answer 1

Hint: Alum is aluminum potassium sulphate. This is the type of alum used in pickling and baking powder that you can get in the grocery store. It's also used in the tanning of leather, as a flocculant in water purification, as an aftershave ingredient, and as a fireproofing treatment for textiles. \[KAl{\left( {S{O_4}} \right)_2}\] is its chemical formula. Alum can also be used as a chemical leavener in the home. It's often used as a reactant in baking powders alongside baking soda.

Complete answer:
Alum powder and baking soda are not the same thing.
Alum: The twofold sulphate of potassium and aluminium, potassium alum, potash alum, or potassium aluminium sulphate is a synthetic chemical having the compound equation \[KAl{\left( {S{O_4}} \right)_2}\] . The dodecahydrate, \[KAl{\left( {S{O_4}} \right)_2}\]\[12{H_2}O\] , is the most common form. With a space bundle of \[Pa - 3\] and a cross section parameter of \[12.18\mathop A\limits^ \circ \] , it forms a cubic structure. The compound is the most important member of the nonexclusive group of alums known as alums, and is commonly referred to as plain alum.
Baking soda: In contrast to Baking soda, or sodium bicarbonate (IUPAC name: sodium hydrogen carbonate), is a synthetic chemical having the formula \[NaHC{O_3}\] . A sodium cation \[\left( {N{a^ + }} \right)\] and a bicarbonate anion \[\left( {HC{O_3}} \right)\] combine to form this salt. Sodium bicarbonate is a white, crystalline substance that typically appears as a fine powder. It has a salty, antacid flavour that reminds me of washing soft drinks (sodium carbonate). Nahcolite is a common mineral structure. It's a fragment of the mineral natron that can be found broken down in a variety of mineral springs.

Note:
Jewellers and machinists regularly use alum in the form of potassium aluminium sulphate or ammonium aluminium sulphate in a concentrated bath of hot water to dissolve hardened steel drill bits that have broken off in items made of aluminium, copper, brass, gold (any karat), silver (both sterling and fine), and stainless steel. This is due to the fact that alum does not react chemically with any of these metals, yet it will corrode carbon steel.