What does Ksp mean in chemistry?

1 Answer
Oscar L.
Jun 24, 2016

The "sp" means "solubility product". #K_{sp}#, 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

#K_{sp}=["Ag"^+]["Cl"^-]=1.6xx10^{-10}#

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