Question

During a flood, the labels from three bottles of chemicals were lost. The three unlabeled bottles of white solids were supposed to contain strontium nitrate, ammonium carbonate, and potassium sulfate. Explain how you could easily test the substances and relabel the bottles.

Answer 1

To test and relabel the bottles, perform a series of experiments. Add silver nitrate to identify strontium nitrate, hydrochloric acid to identify ammonium carbonate, and sodium hydroxide to identify potassium sulfate.

Step-by-step explanation:

To test and relabel the bottles, you can perform a series of experiments using known reactions and observations.

1. Add silver nitrate (AgNO3) to each of the three bottles. If a white precipitate forms in bottle Z, it contains strontium nitrate because strontium forms a white precipitate with silver nitrate.
2. Add hydrochloric acid (HCl) to bottle Y. If it produces carbon dioxide gas, it contains ammonium carbonate because ammonium carbonate reacts with HCl to produce carbon dioxide.
3. Add sodium hydroxide (NaOH) to bottle X. If it forms a white precipitate, it contains potassium sulfate because potassium forms a white precipitate with sodium hydroxide.

Based on these observations, you can determine the contents of each bottle and relabel them accordingly.