The compound sodium thiosulfate pentahydrate, Na2S2O3.5H20, is important commercially to the pho-
tography business as "hypo," because it has the abil-
ity to dissolve unreacted silver salts from photo-
graphic film during development. Sodium thiosulfate
pentahydrate can be produced by boiling elemental
sulfur in an aqueous solution of sodium sulfite.
Sg(s) +8Na2SO3(aq) 40H2O(1) -Na2S2O3-5H2O(s)
(unbalanced)
What is the theoretical yield of sodium thiosulfate
pentahydrate when 3.25 g of sulfur is boiled with 13.1
g of sodium sulfite? Sodium thiosulfate pentahydrate
is
very
soluble in water. What is the percent yield of
the synthesis if a student doing this experiment is able
to isolate (collect) only 5.26 g of the product?