What combination forms salt?

Answer 1

Salts are the products of the reactions between acids and bases - neutralization reactions. Table salt, NaCl, is the result of the reaction between sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid (NaOH + HCl = NaCl + H2O)

Answer 2

Salt is a pretty flimsy term and so the question is difficult to answer Salts are usually taken to be compounds consisting of a cation and an anion so that the net charge is zero and the compound contains an ionic bond.

Problem is, bond types are a sliding scale and just where such boundaries lie is extremely arbitrary.

As a chemist, I would only see something and immediately think "salt!" if an anion is neutralised using a cation via a heavily polarised ionic bond. How you would classify this is up to you, but I'll give you some common examples that will account for probably most things up to degree level.

Anyhow, this kind of answers the question. We (for the above definition) need an anion (negatively charged) and a cation (positively charged) together to make a net charge of zero.

Let's think of common table salt, NaCl. We can write this as Na+Cl- because there exists a -pretty exclusively- ionic bond. The Na is very weakly electronegative whereas the Chlorine is heavily electronegative. They're on opposite sides of the Periodic Table, so we think - ionic bond.

We have our cation, Na+. And our anion, Cl-.

And most salts you see will be pretty similar to this. A lot will have halogens as the anion. Another important substitution is the alkaline metal for a quaternary amine.

NR4+ Cl- would be a salt. You usually see big square brackets around the NR4+ and the anion floating outside it (usually at top right corner of brackets...), so that's just something to look out for. That's common because these are often surfactants, like what we use to wash dishes.

The more you see, the easier identification becomes...and thusly, the easier to see the bonding trends.

1. Very ionic bonds.

2. Alkaline metals with very electronegative species.

3. Halogens with weakly electronegative species.

4. Neutralised quaternary amines.

Answer 3

sodium and Chlorine, So Sodium Chloride!

Answer 4

sodium and chloride