Question

Write down the formulae of sodium hydroxide.

Answer 1

Hint: The sodium hydroxide is an ionic compound form from positive charge sodium ion and negative charge hydroxide ion. It is commonly used as a base and has many industrial applications.

Complete step by step answer:
Sodium hydroxide is used as an inorganic base. It is also known as caustic soda. It is odourless and white crystalline in nature. Sodium hydroxide is available as pallets, flaks, solutions. The chemical formula of sodium hydroxide is NaOH with molecular weight 40.01 g/mol. The sodium hydroxide is treated as the sodium salt where sodium carries a positive charge and hydroxide carries a negative charge. Due to the presence of charge separation they are ionic compounds where sodium ion and hydroxide ion are bonded by ionic bonds formed by transfer of ions.
The sodium hydroxide is industrially prepared by the chlor alkali process. In this process, the electrolysis of sodium chloride solution results in the formation of chlorine gas and sodium hydroxide.
The reaction is shown below.
\[2NaCl + 2{H_2}O \to 2NaOH + C{l_2} + {H_2}\]
In this reaction, two mole of sodium chloride react with two mole of water to give two mole of sodium hydroxide, one mole of chlorine gas and one mole of hydrogen.
Sodium hydroxide reacts with acid to form salt and water. The reaction is known as neutralization reaction.
Sodium hydroxide is used in industries for the preparation of soaps and detergents. It is used in aluminium production in Bayer’s process.

Note: The sodium hydroxide obtained during the chlor alkali process is present as 50% solution in water which is further dried to obtain solid flakes of sodium chloride.