The problem states to calculate the concentrations of all the species in a 0.455 M Na2CO3 solution.
The species include:
[CO32-]
[HCO3-]
[H2CO3]
[Na+]
[OH-]
[H+]
And that for H2CO3, Ka1 = 4.2 x 10-7 and that Ka2 = 4.8 x 10-11
I understand how the mathematics works behind this, though I don't understand how it ionizes and re-ionizes.
Is Na2CO3 the starting species or is H2CO3?
If Na is the starting species, is water added to it to cause it to dissociate, forming a separate ion from the sodium ion? At which point, the water would react to form OH or is it opposite where H simply dissociates in a water solution and NaOH is added?
Could someone help by writing the ionization equations? Since I'm completely lost in regards to that.