{"id":221861,"date":"2025-05-30T16:05:56","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T16:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/?p=221861"},"modified":"2025-05-30T16:05:58","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T16:05:58","slug":"mercury-i-carbonate-hg2co3-is-a-salt-of-low-solubility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/2025\/05\/30\/mercury-i-carbonate-hg2co3-is-a-salt-of-low-solubility\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercury (I) carbonate, Hg2CO3 is a salt of low solubility."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Mercury (I) carbonate, Hg2CO3 is a salt of low solubility. When placed in water, it dissolves until an equilibrium is reached [the mercury (I) ion, Hg22+, is diatomic]:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Write an expression for the solubility product constant, ksp, of Mercury (I) carbonate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Correct Answer and Explanation is:<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Solubility Product Expression for Mercury(I) Carbonate (Hg\u2082CO\u2083)<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The solubility product constant (KspK_{sp}) expression for the dissociation of Mercury(I) carbonate is: Ksp=[Hg22+][CO32\u2212]K_{sp} = [\\text{Hg}_2^{2+}] [\\text{CO}_3^{2-}]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Explanation<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Mercury(I) carbonate, with the formula Hg2CO3\\text{Hg}_2\\text{CO}_3, is an ionic salt<\/strong> that has low solubility<\/strong> in water. When it is added to water, only a small amount dissolves before establishing a dynamic equilibrium between the solid salt<\/strong> and its dissociated ions<\/strong> in solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The dissolution reaction is: Hg2CO3(s)\u21ccHg22+(aq)+CO32\u2212(aq)\\text{Hg}_2\\text{CO}_3 (s) \\rightleftharpoons \\text{Hg}_2^{2+} (aq) + \\text{CO}_3^{2-} (aq)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here, Hg\u2082\u00b2\u207a<\/strong> is a diatomic cation<\/strong>, meaning it consists of two mercury(I) atoms bonded together. This is characteristic of mercury(I) compounds, as the mercury(I) ion (Hg\u207a) is unstable alone and always forms the diatomic ion Hg22+\\text{Hg}_2^{2+}.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The solubility product constant (Ksp)<\/strong> is an equilibrium constant used for sparingly soluble salts. It quantifies the product of the molar concentrations<\/strong> of the dissociated ions, each raised to the power of their stoichiometric coefficients<\/strong> from the balanced dissolution equation. Since there is one mole of Hg\u2082\u00b2\u207a<\/strong> and one mole of CO\u2083\u00b2\u207b<\/strong> produced for every mole of Hg\u2082CO\u2083 that dissolves, the exponents in the expression are both 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thus, the KspK_{sp} expression is: Ksp=[Hg22+][CO32\u2212]K_{sp} = [\\text{Hg}_2^{2+}] [\\text{CO}_3^{2-}]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This expression allows us to calculate or understand the extent to which Hg\u2082CO\u2083 can dissolve in water under equilibrium conditions. Since it’s a low-solubility compound, the concentrations of the ions will be small, and so will the value of KspK_{sp}. Note that solids<\/strong> are not included in the equilibrium expression, which is why Hg2CO3(s)\\text{Hg}_2\\text{CO}_3(s) does not appear in the formula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Mercury (I) carbonate, Hg2CO3 is a salt of low solubility. When placed in water, it dissolves until an equilibrium is reached [the mercury (I) ion, Hg22+, is diatomic]: Hg2CO3(s) \u2192 Hg22+ (aq) + CO32- (aq) Write an expression for the solubility product constant, ksp, of Mercury (I) carbonate. The Correct Answer and Explanation is: Solubility […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exams-certification"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221861\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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