Which salts form hydrates

Learning Objective Generate the chemical formula and systematic name of a given inorganic hydrate. An anhydride is a hydrate that has lost water. A substance that does not contain any water is referred to as anhydrous. In organic chemistry, a hydrate is a compound of water, or its elements, with another molecule. Glucose, C 6 H 12 O 6 , was originally thought of as a carbohydrate carbon and water , but this classification does not properly describe its structure and properties.

Show Sources Boundless vets and curates high-quality, openly licensed content from around the Internet. Licenses and Attributions. What is hydrated salt? Hydrated salts are inorganic salts that contact with water molecules and undergo a change in their crystalline structure.

However, to better understand these salts, one needs to know the structure of hydrates, hydrous, and anhydrous compounds. In chemistry, a hydrate is a hydrated ionic compound that absorbs water molecules from its environment and contains them as part of its structure.

The most known hydrates are crystalline solids. Crystalline solids lose their structure when the bound water is removed. Minerals like common table salt are crystalline solids. Examples of Hydrates. We have briefly explained what hydrates are, but what is hydrated salt specifically? If a salt molecule is bound to water molecules, it is a hydrated salt. In another saying, hydrated salt is a salt molecule that is lankly attached to a certain number of water molecules.

Most salts are crystals in a hydrated state, meaning that a certain proportion of water is attached to the crystal structure. This water of crystallization can be separated by heating the salt, resulting in an anhydrous structure.

A well-known example is a white anhydrous copper sulfate powder that forms a blue solution when water is added. Hydrated blue copper sulfate crystals can be obtained when this blue solution is evaporated. One place where that occurred, to create naturally occurring Epsom salt, or magnesium sulfate heptahydrate, is Epsom, England. Since the human body needs many of the chemicals that make up different salts, but those chemicals may be difficult to obtain or absorb through diet alone, places where hydrated salts naturally occur often are traditionally viewed as places for people to heal and take curative baths.

For example, such is the case with Epsom. Salts that have a loose enough crystalline structure to incorporate water molecules and become hydrated salts may absorb the water molecules from the water vapor in the air, or become hydrated when in contact with liquid water. When hydrated, magnesium sulfate becomes magnesium sulfate heptahydarate. The magnesium sulfate molecule is the MgSO4 portion of the symbol of Epsom salts, and the H20 7 is meant to show that the magnesium sulfate molecule is bound to seven water H2O molecules.

The ratio of the salt molecules to water molecules may be more complex -- for example, the simplest ratio for hydrated cadmium sulfate is three cadmium sulfate molecules to eight water molecules, so the simplest chemical symbol for the hydrated salt is CdSO4 3 H2O 8. The severing of the bonds between a salt molecule and the water molecules bound to it in a hydrated salt is called dehydration. The application of relatively gentle heat is usually enough to sever the bonds between the water molecules and the salt molecule of a hydrated salt, though how much heat is necessary is specific to the salt.