Is citric acid plus baking soda an endothermic reaction?

Question

Please explain if it is endothermic or exothermic?

Answer 1

Although this reaction looks like this is a case of a neutralization reaction, which are usually exothermic, this case is a bit more complicated than that. The reaction is indeed endothermic (you, probably, observed that the temperature in your beaker dropped down significantly when you did the experiment ;)

 

The calculations for the exact amount of heat absorbed are rather straightforward if you use the standard calorimetry calculations (remember equation for specific heat?). You can double-check your calculations or see how accurate those are by calculating the ΔH° of this reaction via the Hess law.

 

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