Question #fc0a2

1 Answer
Jun 23, 2017

This reaction doesn't take place.

Explanation:

The thing to recognize here is that magnesium sulfate, "MgSO"_4, and sodium chloride, "NaCl", the two potential products of the reaction, are soluble in water, which implies that they exist as ions in aqueous solution.

![http://glencoe.mheducation.com/olcweb/cgi/pluginpop.cgi

This means that when you mix a solution of magnesium chloride and a solution of sodium sulfate, all the chemical species will exist as ions in solution, hence no reaction will take place.

The complete ionic equation would look like this

"Mg"_ ((aq))^(2+) + 2"Cl"_ ((aq))^(-) + 2"Na"_ ((aq))^(+) + "SO"_ (4(aq))^(2-) -> "Mg"_ ((aq))^(2+) + "SO"_ (4(aq))^(2-) + 2"Na"_ ((aq))^(+) + 2"Cl"_ ((aq))^(-)

Since all ions are spectator ions, i.e. they are present on both sides of the equation, you can say that you have

"MgCl"_ (2(aq)) + "Na"_ 2"SO"_ (4(aq)) -> "N.R."