Is sodium chloride a mixture?

1 Answer
Truong-Son N.
Aug 4, 2017

Sodium chloride solid is not a mixture. It is a pure substance... It cannot be physically separated into its components, #"Na"^(+)# and #"Cl"^(-)#. It would require energy input, and that is clearly not a physical means.

However, if for some reason, you meant #"NaCl"(aq)#... then sodium chloride IN WATER is a mixture, occurring through the physical dispersion of a liquid solvent amongst the ions, #"Na"^(+)# and #"Cl"^(-)#, that dissociate in solution, surrounding them to separate them from each other.

https://media1.britannica.com/

As a further note, the ions were held together by electrostatic attractions in a lattice, so no chemical change actually occurred!

https://cnx.org/

And in water, this gives:

http://chem.wisc.edu/

(This qualifies as a mixture, since evaporation allows reformation of sodium chloride solid again, thus separating the components, #"NaCl"# and #"H"_2"O"#, via physical means. It is known as a homogeneous mixture.)

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