Question

Be sure to answer all parts. Sulfuric acid is commonly used as an electrolyte in car batteries. Suppose you spill some on your garage floor. Before cleaning it up, you wisely decide to neutralize it with sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) from your kitchen. The reaction of sodium bicarbonate and sulfuric acid is Na2CO3(s) + H2SO4(aq) → Na2SO4(aq) + 2CO2(g) + 2H2O(l) You estimate that your acid spill contains about 5.1 mol H2SO4. What mass of NaHCO3 do you need to neutralize the acid

Answer 1

Answer:

856.8 g NaHCO₃

Explanation:

The balanced reaction is

• 2NaHCO₃(s) + H₂SO₄(aq) → Na₂SO₄(aq) + 2CO₂(g) + 2H₂O(l)

Given the moles of H₂SO₄, we can calculate the needed moles of sodium bicarbonate:

• 5.1 mol H₂SO₄ * $\frac{2molNaHCO_{3}}{1molH_{2}SO_{4}}$ = 10.2 mol NaHCO₃

Now with the molecular weight of NaHCO₃ we can calculate the required mass:

• 10.2 mol NaHCO₃ * 84 g/mol = 856.8 g NaHCO₃