Problem: Toilet bowl cleaners often contain hydrochloric acid to dissolve the calcium carbonate deposits that accumulate within a toilet bowl.What mass of calcium carbonate (in grams) can be dissolved by 3.9 g of HCl? (Hint: Begin by writing a balanced equation for the reaction between hydrochloric acid and calcium carbonate.)

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FREE Expert Solution

• First thing is to setup the balanced reaction and then use stoichiometry to get the mass of CaCO₃. We will need the molar masses of HCl and CaCO₃ for that.
• Reaction appears to be a double displacement reaction where counter ions are being switched
• HCl (hydrochloric acid) and CaCO₃ (calcium carbonate) dissociates as H⁺ and Cl^-, Ca²⁺ and CO₃^2-
• Products will appear as H₂CO₃ (from H⁺ and CO₃^2-) and CaCl₂ (from Ca²⁺ and Cl^-)
• H₂CO₃ will spontaneously transform to H₂O (l) + CO₂ (g) THIS IS A GAS EVOLUTION REACTION.
• CaCl₂ will appear as aqueous species acc. to the solubility rules. All chlorides (Cl^- ) are soluble except AgCl, Hg₂Cl₂ , and PbCl₂ which are insoluble.