ABSTRACT
For water as a solvent, the form of a compound in aqueous solution affects the reaction and the method of writing an equation. Ionic and covalent compounds generally behave differently when dissolved in water. The ionic format requires that soluble ionic compounds be shown as individual separate ions in aqueous solution, depicting their actual form in water. A complete reaction in aqueous solution can be shown in three different ways: a formula equation, a total ionic equation, or a net ionic equation. The net ionic equation displays the specific precipitate forming process; spectator ions that remain unchanged in the complete reaction are not seen. Writing complete balanced equations for precipitation reactions requires determination of the aqueous solubility of potential reactant and product ionic compounds. The solubility rules employed will distinguish between “mostly” soluble vs. “mostly” insoluble for the purposes of completing precipitation reaction equations.
