Question

You have a beaker of water that potentially has Ag+ ions and Ba+ ions (it could have both, one of them, or none of them). How would you design an experiment (flow chart or procedure steps) that will determine which (if any) of these ions are in your water?

Answer 1

See explanation

Step-by-step explanation:

Qualitative analysis in chemistry is a method used to determine the ions present in a solution chiefly by means of chemical reactions.

In this case, I suspect the presence of silver ions and/or barium ions. The first step is to add dilute HCl. This will lead to the precipitation of the silver ion as AgCl. If a white precipitate is formed upon addition of HCl then Ag^+ is present in the solution.

Secondly, I add a carbonate such as NH4CO3(aq). This will cause the barium ions to become precipitated as barium carbonate. Hence, the formation of a white precipitate when NH4CO3(aq) is added to the solution indicates the presence of barium ion in the solution.