Why Does Baking soda and Vinegar react?

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Why Does Baking soda and Vinegar react?

Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate and Vinegar is acetic acid. When sodium bicarbonate is added to acetic acid, carbon-dioxide gas is released.
CH3COOH + NaHCO3 ïÆ’  CH3COONa + H2CO3
The carbonic acid that is released rapidly decomposes into carbon-dioxide and water. When the baking soda is mixed with the acetic acid or lemon juice it produces froth. The baking soda generates an acidic reaction with the vinegar. The reaction also results into bubbling because of the production of gaseous carbon-dioxide. If the mixture is strong, then the froth is released more and faster. The reaction between the two substances, results in a violent form.
The detailed chemistry involved in the reaction:
When sodium bicarbonate is dissolved in water, it gets divided into sodium ion and bicarbonate ion.

NaHCO3 ïÆ’  Na+ + HCO3-
Vinegar, which is a weak acetic acid dissociates into hydrogen ion and acetate ion.

CH3COOH ïÆ’  H+ + CH3COO-
The reaction between the two substances includes an acid-base reaction which is followed by decomposition. When the two chemicals are mixed, the hydrogen ion from acetic acid reacts with the bicarbonate ion to form carbonic acid. The carbonic acid formed immediately dissociates into water and carbon-dioxide.
H+ + HCO3- ïÆ’  H2CO3
H2CO3 ïÆ’  H2O + CO2
The overall reaction can be written as:
Sodium bicarbonate + acetic acid ïÆ’  carbon-dioxide + water + sodium acetate
To demonstrate how violent this reaction would look like, an experiment can be done outdoors. Take a film canister and put some baking soda into it. Slowly add two spoons of acetic acid into it. Immediately, close the canister fast and turn it upside down and get away from that place. Within few seconds, we can observe a heavy explosion of the canister and you can see it flying high up. This is due to the tremendous and vigorous release of carbon-dioxide gas that creates such a high pressure which makes the canister to fly.

Author: Hari M

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