If you give sodium bicarbonate crystalls into water you will have
sodium and carbonate present in dissolved form. In that form it has
been used to treat patients with too much acid produced in the stomach
as it is basic and neutralizes the acid. It has side effects as you
take up more and more sodium and are likely to get kidney and other
problems.
Is it possible to separate sodium and bicarbonate from each other
after dissolution in water? In other words, is it possible to have a
solution containing only or primarily sodium and a solution containing
only or primarily bicarbonate? Where can I buy a solution containing
only or primarily bicarbonate and no sodium?

Many thanks for your efforts!

---

Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 22 Nov 2006 10:29 PST

Sodium bicarbonate is NaHCO3. It is formed of Sodium, Hydrogen,
Carbon, and Oxygen. Without the sodium (Na), you'd have HCO3, which
would not have the same antacid effect as sodium bicarbonate.

Would you consider substances such as potassium bicarbonate or
magnesium bicarbonate, which contain no sodium?

segnem-ga,

Sorry to break the news, but there's no such thing as pure
bicarbonate.  The negatively-charged bicarbonate complex of atoms only
exists in stable form in combination with other atoms, such as sodium,
generally forming a chemical compound known as a salt.

The closest you can come is probably club soda, which is carbon
dioxide gas dissolved in water.  Some of the CO2 reacts with the H2O
to form carbonic acid. The chemical formula for carbonic acid is
H2CO3, while bicarbonate is HCO3 (with a negative charge).


Fisher Scientific is a well-known source of chemical supplies.  As you
can see from a product search for [ bicarbonate ] at their website:


https://www1.fishersci.com/chemical/index.jsp
Fisher Scientific 


there are quite a number of bicarbonate compounds, including:


Sodium Bicarbonate 

Ammonium Bicarbonate 

Potassium Bicarbonate 

Cesium Bicarbonate

Aminoguanidine Bicarbonate



However, there is no offering for Bicarbonate on it's own.  It only
occurs in combination with other chemicals.


This Wikipedia article on bicarbonate will give you a bit of
background on the chemistry:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicarbonate
Bicarbonate


and this article on the related substance, Carbonic Acid, contains
even more detail:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbonic_acid
Carbonic acid


Note, in particular, the section here on "Instability of carbonic
acid", which will give you an idea of the difficulty in bringing into
existence some chemicals on their own.


There is no common grocery-store source of bicarbonate that I am aware
of, other than sodium bicarbonate, so you may be stuck with this
compound as a source of bicarbonate ions, for the time being.

I trust this information fully answers your question.  

However, please don't rate this answer until you have everything you
need.  If you would like any additional information, just post a
Request for Clarification to let me know how I can assist you further,
and I'm at your service.

All the best,

pafalafa-ga


search strategy -- Google search on [ bicarbonate ]

There is no solution of a salt that contains only anions.

till-ga

The old folks used to drink soda water-- water and CO2-- for mild
indigestion. Funny, 'cuz technically it is an acid.