What is Sodium Hydrogen Carbonate?
Sodium hydrogen carbonate or sodium bicarbonate or baking soda, this chemical compound is a weak base and inorganic in nature. The chemical formula for compound is given as NaHCO3 with a molecular weight of 84.007 g/mol.
Sodium Hydrogen Carbonate Structure
The chemical structure is also given below where this ionic compound can be bounded with other atoms and made up of sodium ions, and bicarbonate anions HCO3-.
Sodium Hydrogen Carbonate chemical Formula
The natural occurrence of the chemical compound can be seen as the mineral nahcolite and it is available in plenty of mineral springs too. It is prepared by Solvay process at a larger scale where ammonia and sodium chloride will react together to form NaHCO3 and ammonium chlorides along.
NaCl + NH3 + CO2 + H2O → NaHCO3 + NH4Cl
The other process for preparing NaHCO3 involves dissolving soda with water and allow to pass CO2 thought the solution. This molecule is odourless and a white crystalline solid with a density of 1.2 g/mL and a melting point of 50 degree Celsius.
Sodium Hydrogen Carbonate Properties
When you will be looking at the chemical properties then you can see that this is a weal acidic carbonic acid and a weak base. It quickly reacts with acids to form salts or carbonic acid and decomposes further to give water and the CO2.
The chemical compound is majorly utilized as an antacid, baking soda, odor absorbent etc. it can also be used as the drying agent or fire retardant in fireworks and many other purposes. It is not toxic, so health hazards are also limited when compared to other strong acids.