What does Ksp mean in chemistry?

1 Answer
Oscar L.
Jun 24, 2016

The "sp" means "solubility product". Ksp, the solubility product constant, is the equilibrium constant for dissolution and dissociation of an ionic compound.

Explanation:

Take silver chloride, AgCl, as a typical case. This has a small amount of solubility in water, and what dissolves dissociates into Ag+ and Cl− ions. So we have the dissolution/dissociation reaction

AgCl(s)=Ag+(aq)+Cl−(aq)

and the corresponding solubility product constant

Ksp=[Ag+][Cl−]=1.6×10−10

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