A particulate-level description of two aqueous solutions and their mixture is provided.
• Beaker X (before mixing) contains evenly dispersed blue spheres carrying a 2+ charge and paired gray rod-shaped ions carrying a 1− charge.
• Beaker Y (before mixing) contains evenly dispersed colorless spheres carrying a 1+ charge and green cubes carrying a 1− charge.
• When the contents of the two beakers are combined, the mixed beaker shows a rigid lattice of alternating blue spheres and green cubes that has settled to the bottom, while the colorless spheres and gray rods remain uniformly dispersed in the surrounding liquid.
Assume each sphere or rod represents a single ion. No other species are present in the system.
(a) Identify the formula, including physical state, of the ionic compound that forms the solid lattice in the mixture.
(b) Identify all ions that remain in the aqueous phase after the reaction is complete.
(c) Using the particulate description, explain how both mass conservation (atom balance) and charge conservation are satisfied during the process that leads to the formation of the solid lattice.