Question

(a) What is the common name of sodium hydrogen carbonate?
(b) What happens when a solution of sodium hydrogen carbonate is heated? equation of the reaction involved.
(c) Explain why, sodium hydrogen carbonate is used as an antacid.

Answer 1

Hint: The chemical formulae of sodium hydrogen carbonate is $NaHC{{O}_{3}}$. It is a salt made up of sodium cation and a bicarbonate anion. It is a white colour solid which is crystalline, but often appears in the form of white powder.

Complete answer:
Sodium hydrogen carbonate is base and it is often called sodium bicarbonate. The molar mass of Sodium hydrogen carbonate is 84g/mol. It is soluble in water and gives rise to sodium and bicarbonate ions.
(a)The common name of sodium hydrogen carbonate is baking soda or cooking soda or bread soda or bicarbonate of soda. It is commonly used in baking and pharmaceutical industries.
(b)When we heat a solution of Sodium hydrogen carbonate then it decomposes into sodium carbonate with the evolution of carbon dioxide gas. The chemical reaction involved when Sodium hydrogen carbonate is heated is mentioned below:
\[2NaHC{{O}_{3}}\xrightarrow{Heat}N{{a}_{2}}C{{O}_{3}}+C{{O}_{2}}+{{H}_{2}}O\]
(c) Sodium hydrogen carbonate acts as an antacid because Sodium hydrogen carbonate neutralises the extra acid which is present in the stomach and relieves indigestion.

Note:
The important chemical property of Sodium hydrogen carbonate is that it is a base and being a basic compound, it reacts with acid and undergoes neutralization reaction. Neutralisation is the process in which acid and base react quantitatively with each other and form salt and water. Sodium hydrogen carbonate has many important applications and the most important application is that it is used as a fire extinguisher. A fire extinguisher is a device which consists of pressurized gas.