How would you balance the following equation: Na2CO3 + BaCl2 --> NaCl + BaCO3?

1 Answer
Nov 9, 2015

Na2CO3+BaCl22NaCl+BaCO3

Explanation:

It is important to notice that the CO23 is a polyatomic ion, known as the carbonate ion. When balancing equations with polyatomic ions you can consider them to be a single entity.

On the reactant side you have:
2 Na
1 CO3 ion
1 Ba
2 Cl

By placing 2 moles on the product side you conserve the mass of both Na and Cl.

Since there is one CO3 ion and oneBa you don't need to worry about their stoiciometric coefficient.