Question

The compound silver nitrate is a strong electrolyte. How do you write the reaction that occurs when solid silver nitrate is put into water?

Answer 1

Hint: Before solving this question, we should first know what electrolytes are. Electrolytes are those compounds when added to the water, they dissolve and get dissociated into ions. They are of two types- Strong Electrolytes and Weak Electrolytes.

Complete answer:
The compounds that are dissociated into ions when mixed in the polar solvents are known as electrolytes. They get dissociated into cations and anions. The two types of electrolytes are Strong Electrolytes and Weak Electrolytes.
Strong electrolytes are those electrolytes that get dissociated completely into their ions when dissolved in polar solvents.
For Example – Strong acids, Salts, etc.
Weak electrolytes are those electrolytes that get dissolved partially into their ions when dissolved in polar solvents.
For Example – Weak acids, Weak bases, etc.
Silver Nitrate is ($AgN{{O}_{3}}$), Let us see what happens when we dissolve it in the water –
$AgN{{O}_{3\,}}\left( s \right)\,+\,\,excess\,water\to \,A{{g}^{+}}\,+\,NO_{3}^{-}$
Silver Nitrate being a strong electrolyte ionizes completely when dissolved in water. It got dissociated into ions in which the cation is $A{{g}^{+}}$ and the anion is $NO_{3}^{-}$.

Note:
Silver Nitrate is very corrosive and toxic. When It reacts with ethanol, an explosion occurs. It is versatile in its properties. $AgN{{O}_{3}}$ is also used while making photographic films. Its dilute solution could be used to save an infant’s eyes whose mother has gonorrhea, It destroys the gonococcal bacteria. It also helps to remove warts from the human body.