[brycebb]

Hey guys, I just had a quick question regarding the reaction of copper sulfate and sodium hydroxide.  Now I know that the balanced equation would be CuSO4+2NaOH---> Cu(OH)2+Na2SO4.  The question I had was usually copper sulfate is copper sulfate pentahydrade, so there is 5 mol of water within the structure of the salt.  When drawing the balanced equation, would you instead use CuSO4*5H20, and if so I could not balance the coefficients for the reaction.  Is this because there would be water within the copper hydroxide as well?

[Hunter2]

CuSO₄*5H₂0 exist only as solid. In aquaeous solution you have Cu²⁺ and SO₄^2-.
If you add NaOH the main reaction is : Cu²⁺ + 2 OH^- => Cu(OH)₂. Na⁺ and SO₄^2- are spectator ions and dont participate on the reaction.

[brycebb]

Ahh ok. thank you, I was just checking.