Dissolving Salt in Water Chemical or Physical Change

When you dissolve table salt (sodium chloride, also known as NaCl) in water, are you producing a chemical change or a physical change? A physical change results in a change of the materials appearance, but no new chemical products result. A chemical change involves a chemical reaction, with new substances produced as a result of the change. Why Dissolving Salt Would Be a Chemical Change When you dissolve salt in water the sodium chloride dissociates in Na ions and Cl- ions, which may be written as a chemical equation: NaCl(s) → Na(aq) Cl-(aq) Therefore, dissolving salt in water is an example of a chemical change. The reactant (sodium chloride or NaCl) is different from the products (sodium cation and chlorine anion). Thus, any ionic compound that is soluble in water would experience a chemical change. In contrast, dissolving a covalent compound like sugar does not result in a chemical reaction. When sugar is dissolved, the molecules disperse throughout the water, but they dont change their chemical identity. Why Some People Consider  Dissolving Salt a Physical Change If you search online for the answer to this question, youll see about equal numbers of responses arguing that dissolving salt is a physical change as opposed to a chemical change. The confusion arises because one common test to help distinguish chemical and physical changes is whether or not the starting material in the change may be recovered using only physical processes. If you boil the water off of a salt solution, youll obtain salt.