{"id":245436,"date":"2025-07-06T07:51:47","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T07:51:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/?p=245436"},"modified":"2025-07-06T07:51:49","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T07:51:49","slug":"the-molecular-equation-for-the-reaction-of-hydrochloric-acid-hci-and-sodium-hydroxide-naoh-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/06\/the-molecular-equation-for-the-reaction-of-hydrochloric-acid-hci-and-sodium-hydroxide-naoh-is\/","title":{"rendered":"The molecular equation for the reaction of hydrochloric acid (HCI) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) is"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The molecular equation for the reaction of hydrochloric acid (HCI) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) is, NaOH (aq.) + HCl (aq.) ?NaCl (aq.) +H2O (I) The net ionic equation is: NaOH(aq.) + HCl (aq.) ?NaCl (aq.) + H2O(I) Na+ (aq.) + OH (aq.) + H+(aq.) + Cl (aq.) ? H2O(l) + Na+ (aq.) + OH-(aq.) none of the above are correct. H+ (aq.) + OH (aq.) ? H2O(1)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-ast-global-color-1-color\">The Correct Answer and Explanation is:<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The correct answer is: <strong>H+ (aq.) + OH- (aq.) \u2192 H2O (l)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Explanation:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The reaction between hydrochloric acid (HCl) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) is a classic acid-base neutralization reaction. Let&#8217;s break it down:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Molecular Equation:<\/strong><br>The molecular equation is: NaOH\u00a0(aq)+HCl\u00a0(aq)\u2192NaCl\u00a0(aq)+H2O\u00a0(l)\\text{NaOH (aq)} + \\text{HCl (aq)} \\rightarrow \\text{NaCl (aq)} + \\text{H}_2\\text{O (l)}NaOH\u00a0(aq)+HCl\u00a0(aq)\u2192NaCl\u00a0(aq)+H2\u200bO\u00a0(l) This shows the complete chemical reaction, where NaOH and HCl react to form sodium chloride (NaCl) and water (H2O).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Complete Ionic Equation:<\/strong><br>When the ionic compounds dissociate in water, we get: Na+(aq)+OH\u2212(aq)+H+(aq)+Cl\u2212(aq)\u2192Na+(aq)+Cl\u2212(aq)+H2O\u00a0(l)\\text{Na}^+ (aq) + \\text{OH}^- (aq) + \\text{H}^+ (aq) + \\text{Cl}^- (aq) \\rightarrow \\text{Na}^+ (aq) + \\text{Cl}^- (aq) + \\text{H}_2\\text{O (l)}Na+(aq)+OH\u2212(aq)+H+(aq)+Cl\u2212(aq)\u2192Na+(aq)+Cl\u2212(aq)+H2\u200bO\u00a0(l) In the complete ionic equation, sodium (Na+) and chloride (Cl-) ions are spectator ions. They do not participate in the actual neutralization reaction.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Net Ionic Equation:<\/strong><br>The net ionic equation eliminates the spectator ions (Na+ and Cl-) to focus on the species that actually react. Since Na+ and Cl- are unchanged on both sides of the equation, they are omitted. What remains is: H+(aq)+OH\u2212(aq)\u2192H2O\u00a0(l)\\text{H}^+ (aq) + \\text{OH}^- (aq) \\rightarrow \\text{H}_2\\text{O (l)}H+(aq)+OH\u2212(aq)\u2192H2\u200bO\u00a0(l) This is the <strong>net ionic equation<\/strong> for the reaction, showing that hydrogen ions (H+) from the acid and hydroxide ions (OH-) from the base combine to form water.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why the Other Choices are Incorrect:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Option 1 (NaOH(aq) + HCl(aq) \u2192 NaCl(aq) + H2O(l))<\/strong>: This is the <strong>molecular equation<\/strong>, not the net ionic equation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Option 2 (Na+ (aq) + OH- (aq) + H+ (aq) + Cl- (aq) \u2192 H2O(l) + Na+ (aq) + OH-(aq))<\/strong>: This is the <strong>complete ionic equation<\/strong>, but not the net ionic equation. It still contains the spectator ions Na+ and Cl-.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Option 3 (None of the above)<\/strong>: Since option 4 is correct, this option is incorrect.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In conclusion, the net ionic equation for the neutralization of HCl and NaOH is simply the combination of H+ and OH- to form water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/learnexams-banner5-654.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-245440\"\/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The molecular equation for the reaction of hydrochloric acid (HCI) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) is, NaOH (aq.) + HCl (aq.) ?NaCl (aq.) +H2O (I) The net ionic equation is: NaOH(aq.) + HCl (aq.) ?NaCl (aq.) + H2O(I) Na+ (aq.) + OH (aq.) + H+(aq.) + Cl (aq.) ? H2O(l) + Na+ (aq.) + OH-(aq.) none [&hellip;]<\/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-245436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exams-certification"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245436","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=245436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245436\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}