Chemical salts II. Properties, formation and applications

What are chemical salts?

Chemical salts are ionic compounds formed from the combination of a cation with an anion. These compounds have a wide variety of uses in industry, medicine, agriculture and other fields.

Formation of chemical salts

Salts are formed through a chemical reaction between an acid and a base. During this reaction, the acid and base ions exchange charges to form a salt. For example, the combination of hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide produces sodium chloride (common salt) and water:

HCl + NaOH → NaCl + H₂O.

Properties of chemical salts

Salts can have different properties, such as melting and boiling point, solubility, density and electrical conductivity. These properties depend on the chemical structure of the salt and the forces that exist between the ions in the crystal lattice.

Applications of chemical salts

Salts are used in a wide variety of applications. For example, sodium chloride is used as a seasoning and preservative in the food industry, as a flux in metallurgy and as a raw material in the production of other chemical compounds. Aluminum sulfate is used in water purification as a coagulant and flocculant to remove impurities. Ammonium nitrate is used as a fertilizer in agriculture and as an explosive in mining.

Salts also have applications in medicine. For example, potassium chloride is used to treat hypokalemia (low potassium in the blood) and magnesium sulfate is used as a laxative and in the treatment of eclampsia (complication of pregnancy).