Question #6fc31

1 Answer
anor277
Jul 12, 2017

Are you asking how common salt dissolves in water.......?

Explanation:

In the solid state of sodium chloride, #Na^+Cl^-#, each metal cation is surrounded by 6 chloride anions in an octahedral array. And each chloride anion is surrounded by 6 metal cations in an octahedral array. The 1:1 stoichiometry of #NaCl# makes this a necessity.

However, in solution, the metal cations can be solvated by 4-6 water molecules, to give a so-called ion-dipole complex. That is, while we write #NaCl(aq)# or #Na^+#, the actual species in solution is likely #[Na(OH_2)_6]^+# in which the aqua ligands are quite labile. And likewise the chloride anion is solvated by the positive end of the water dipole, i.e. #stackrel(delta^+)H-stackrel(delta^-)O-stackrel(delta^+)H#.

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