Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Whats in the water we drink?
- Hard water
- Disadvantages
- Difficult to form lather with soap
- Scum fomshich wastes soap
- Scale (a hard crust)
forms inside kettles
wasting energy
- Hot water pipes 'fur
up' which can block
them completely
- Advantages
- Preffered taste
- Calciumin the
water is good
for strong teeth
and bones
- Reduces heart illnesses
- Good for making beer
- Stops poisonous salts dissolving in water
- What makes it hard?
- If the water supply has flowed
through chalk or limestone
(calcium carbonate) it will be
hard
- The chemistry of scum
- Calcium and magnesium ions that
cause hard water are not removed
when water is purified at the water
works, so they're found in tap water
- calcium ions from
water(soluble) +
stearate ions from
soap(soluble) =
calcium stearate
(scum) (insoluble)
- Water softening
- All rain is acidic due to co2
dissolving in water to form a weak
solution of carbonic acid
- Dissolving the rocks
- When rain falls onto rocks, this weak
acidity sets off the slow chemical
reactions that cause chemical
weathering
- Some of the minerals in igneuos rocks
are slowly turned to clay
- The weak carbonic acid has a more direct
effect on rocks such as limestone that are
made of calcium carbonate
- These rocks are slowly dissolved away as soluble
calcium hydrogencarbonate froms
- Limescale problems
- As hard water evaporates (or
heated) some co2 is lost with the
water, and calcium carbonate
reforms
- Enhanced if heated meaning kettles,
hot water pipes etc all suffer from
limescale
- Can be easily removed by dissolving it in a weak acid
- Temporary and permanent hardness
- By boiling hard water, you can
reverse the reaction driving off
the co2 and precipitating all of
the calcium ions as calcium
carbonate.
- Temporary hardness
- Water softening
- Bath salts soften the water
immediately by precipitating the
calcium and magnesium ions in a
double decomposition reaction
- Sodium carbonate+calcium ions = calcium carbonate+sodium ions
- An expensive option is a ion-exchange column
- contains sodium ions (provided by common salts) or hydrogen ions,
which can swap places with calcium or magnesium ions in the hard
water
- It can run continuously for a long time, removing the magnesium and calcium ions from the water.
- Dishwashers have this which is why salts is added regularly
- The water that comes out now however contains sodium ions which are not good for heath