Determine if the following salt is neutral, acidic or basic.

Question

If acidic or basic, write the appropriate equilibrium equation for the acid or base that exists when the salt is dissolved in aqueous solution. If neutral, write only NR.

NaCN

Answer 1

Sodium Cyanide, NaCN, dissociates in water solution to give Na¹⁺ and CN^1- ions. CN^1- reacts with H2O according to the following equation

CN^1- + H2O ↔ HCN + OH^1- in a reaction called hydrolysis as HCN is a weak acid. An equilibrium expression for this is

K_h = [HCN] [OH^1-] / [CN^1-] Because of the production of OH^1-, the solution will be basic.