Hard water in Chemistry Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Hard water in Chemistry - Assignment Example C02 and water reacts with each other carbonic acid. Carbonic acid usually exists as a bicarbonate ion at a normal environmental pH.   (figure 1) . Extensive limestone deposits have been built up over the years by microorganism by taking up of this carbonic acid. Groundwater acquires calcium and bicarbonate ions and hence becomes "hard". If the bicarbonate ions are a lot then they may form a precipitate like that in pipes. (Figure 2)Temporary hardnessTemporary hardness is referred to such water that can lose its hardness by simply boiling it. Boiling water gives rise to the following reaction2 HCO3–  Ã¢â€ â€™ CO32–  + CO2CO32–  reacts with Calcium  or Magnesium  ions. This leads to the formation of a precipitate. This precipitate is actually calcium and magnesium carbonates which are insoluble in nature.Water that doesn’t lose it hardness by boiling is known to be permanently hard. This is mainly due to the presence of chloride or sulphate, that is, it contains anions. Traditional water softening is usually carried out through a process that is known as ion exchange. Ion exchange refers to the process in which chloride and sodium ions exchange places. These ions are fixed comparatively loosely to something called a zeolite. Zeolite may be understood referring to figure 3 in the appendix,Although they is quite some proof that electromagnetic devices may be useful in preventing the formation of scale.