liquidlightning
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Reactivity
I am a bit confused on this subject. How do you tell what will be formed when two salts react, or don't? For example, I understand Calcium chloride
and copper acetate react to form calcium acetate and copper chloride, but why? Isn't the calcium more reactive and the chloride ion a stronger
oxidiser than the acetate ion?
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barley81
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My take on your problem:
(I had a similar issue a few years ago in chemistry class.)
Usually, when two compounds are mixed in solution for a double-displacement solution, one of the products can be isolated because it can be
crystallized or otherwise separated (or it precipitates).
Example: In a solution of calcium chloride and copper acetate, there are a variety of things. Copper-chloro complexes, copper acetate complex, calcium
ions, chloride ions, copper ions, and acetate ions. It all depends on what you can do to isolate a species from the mixture. Only then can you write
an equation for the reaction. If you want to know what happens, you should look up solubility data on the compounds and compare them.
[Edited on 17-5-2012 by barley81]
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