Final answer:
Deionized water is crucial for extracting NaCl due to its purity, which ensures no impurities affect the solvation and ionization processes in scientific experiments.
Step-by-step explanation:
It is important to use deionized water rather than tap water to extract NaCl because tap water contains impurities that affect the extraction process. These impurities may interfere with the desired reactions, alter the solvation process, or introduce variables that could skew results when conducting a chemical analysis. In contrast, deionized water has had its ions removed and therefore, it won’t introduce these impurities into the solution, allowing the NaCl to dissolve clearly in the form of its ions, Na+ and Cl-, which is critical for precise scientific experiments.
While tap water may contain dissolved minerals and other substances that could affect the solubility, ionization, or the conductivity of the resulting solution, deionized water, being free of such contaminants, ensures consistency and reliability in scientific experiments. Additionally, the statement that deionized water is cheaper is not a primary concern in scientific procedures - the emphasis is on the purity of the water used. Therefore, the correct answer is (a) Tap water contains impurities that affect the extraction process.