Sodium carbonate and washing soda are properly used household bases. Bases can be either water soluble or insoluble. Insoluble bases react with acids, directly dissolving in the acid as they react. Soluble bases form hydroxide ions in solution, that then react with the acid as described in the above section Acids, bases and water.
Caution: Base solutions are slippery or soapy to the touch. What is happening is the base is reacting with the oils in your skin to form soap, and it is your own oils that you are feeling as they turn into soap! Do not touch bases or get them near your eyes. Sodium hydroxide is particularly strong base and should not be handled at all. Neutralisation When an acid and a base are combined, water and a salt are formed.
For example, when hydrochloric acid is mixed with sodium hydroxide, water and sodium chloride are formed. Both hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide would dissolve you if you fell into them, but you can go swimming in the product of their reaction, salt water! Before you start making your own oceans from acids and bases, remember; it is only when all of the acid has been neutralised by all of the base that you will have neutral salt water.
If one or the other is in excess, then the solution will be salty, but it will also be either acidic or basic as well. The metals react violently with water, releasing and igniting hydrogen gas and causing an explosion. Because of the strong reactivity of these metals with water, it is dangerous to leave them exposed even to the moisture in humid air. They are usually stored in mineral oil, with which they do not react.
A class of elements called the noble or precious metals dissolve only with difficulty. Platinum, iridium, gold and osmium, in particular, stand up to attack by strong hydrochloric and nitric acids. However, by carefully combining them, you obtain a powerful solvent known as aqua regia, which does dissolve gold. Platinum and a few other metals are particularly resistant to acids, but hot aqua regia dissolves them, although slowly.
Chicago native John Papiewski has a physics degree and has been writing since He has contributed to "Foresight Update," a nanotechnology newsletter from the Foresight Institute.
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