Question

Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is often used to neutralize spills of acids on the benchtop of the laboratory. What mass of sodium bicarbonate would be needed to neutralize a spill consisting of 25.2 mL of 6.01 M hydrochloric acid solution?

Answer 1

Answer : The mass of
`NaHCO_3` needed is, 12.7 grams.

Explanation :

First we have to calculate the moles of HCl.

`\text{Moles of }HCl=\text{Concentration of }HCl* \text{Volume of }HCl`

`\text{Moles of }HCl=6.01M* 0.0252L=0.151mol`

Now we have to calculate the moles of
`NaHCO_3`

The balanced neutralization reaction will be:

`HCl+NaHCO_3\rightarrow NaCl+H_2O+CO_2`

From the balanced chemical reaction we conclude that,

As, 1 mole of HCl neutralizes by 1 mole of
`NaHCO_3`

So, 0.151 mole of HCl neutralizes by 0.151 mole of
`NaHCO_3`

Now we have to calculate the mass of
`NaHCO_3`

`\text{ Mass of }NaHCO_3=\text{ Moles of }NaHCO_3* \text{ Molar mass of }NaHCO_3`

Molar mass of
`NaHCO_3` = 84 g/mole

`\text{ Mass of }NaHCO_3=(0.151moles)* (84g/mole)=12.7g`

Therefore, the mass of
`NaHCO_3` needed is, 12.7 grams.