Question

H2SO4 is a dibasic acid. write two reactions to justify this statement and name the reaction products in the two cases

Answer 1

The following two reactions show the dibasic nature of sulphuric acid.

Sulphuric Acid, H2SO4, is a dibasic acid in nature  as it contains 2 hydrogen atoms which ionise in aqueous solution to become Hydrogen Ions, H(+).

H2SO4 ↔ H+ + HSO4-HSO4- ↔ H+ + SO4

2-The reaction for the overall dissociation can be represented as

H2SO4 ↔ 2H+ + SO4 2- H2SO4 reacts with Na2CO3 to form sodium sulphate, water with the emission of CO2 gas.

The two acidic hydrogen ions are replaced by two sodium ions. Similar reaction occurs with potassium carbonate.  Na2CO3 + H2SO4 -------->  Na2SO4  +   H2O + CO2  

Sodium  sulphuric  Sodium sulphate  water  carbondioxide  carbonate  acid  

K2CO3 + H2SO4 -------->  K2SO4  +  H2O + CO2