Question

What do you mean by a precipitation reaction? Explain by giving examples.

Answer 1

Hint:Precipitate is the insoluble solid which settles down after the completion of the chemical reaction. The formation of the precipitate can help in determining the presence of various types of ions or atoms. Solubility tables help determine the precipitation reaction.

Complete step by step answer
-A precipitation reaction is a type of reaction in which the two or more reactants react together to form an Insoluble solid commonly known as a precipitate.
-The reaction generally takes place in the aqueous medium when two reactants having different salts react together.
-For example, $\text{AgN}{{\text{O}}_3}_{\left(\text{aq}\right)}\text{ + KC}{\text{l}}_{\left(\text{aq}\right)}\to \text{ AgC}{\text{l}}_{\left(\text{s}\right)}\text{ + KN}{\text{O}}_{3\left(\text{aq}\right)}$
-Here, we can see in the above reaction when silver nitrate reacts with the potassium chloride then it yields silver chloride as a precipitate which is white and along with it, the potassium nitrate is also formed.
-We can also write the complete ionic equation for the precipitation reaction i.e
${\text{Ag}}_{\left(\text{aq}\right)}^{+}{\text{ + NO}}_{\left(\text{aq}\right)}^{-}{\text{ + K}}_{\left(\text{aq}\right)}^{+}{\text{ + Cl}}_{\left(\text{aq}\right)}^{-}\to \text{ AgC}{\text{l}}_{\left(\text{aq}\right)}{\text{ + K}}_{\left(\text{aq}\right)}^{+}{\text{ + NO}}_{\left(\text{aq}\right)}^{-}$
-The precipitation reaction is very helpful in determining the presence of various ions.
-For example, If the silver nitrate is added to an unknown solution, and as a result, the precipitate of the white colour is formed.
-Then it can tell us that the unknown solution is potassium chloride because silver nitrate gives a white precipitate with potassium chloride.

Note
Precipitate reaction is also helpful in separating certain compounds or elements in the form of precipitate like the removal of salt from the water. The precipitate which is formed can be isolated with certain procedures like filtration, centrifugation, etc.