Question

Question #fc0a2

Answer 1

This reaction doesn't take place.

Explanation:

The thing to recognize here is that magnesium sulfate, `"MgSO"_4`, and sodium chloride, `"NaCl"`, the two potential products of the reaction, are soluble in water, which implies that they exist as ions in aqueous solution.

This means that when you mix a solution of magnesium chloride and a solution of sodium sulfate, all the chemical species will exist as ions in solution, hence no reaction will take place.

The complete ionic equation would look like this

`"Mg"_ ((aq))^(2+) + 2"Cl"_ ((aq))^(-) + 2"Na"_ ((aq))^(+) + "SO"_ (4(aq))^(2-) -> "Mg"_ ((aq))^(2+) + "SO"_ (4(aq))^(2-) + 2"Na"_ ((aq))^(+) + 2"Cl"_ ((aq))^(-)`

Since all ions are spectator ions, i.e. they are present on both sides of the equation, you can say that you have

`"MgCl"_ (2(aq)) + "Na"_ 2"SO"_ (4(aq)) -> "N.R."`