Question

Give a chemical test to distinguish between the following: Sodium sulfate and ammonium sulfate.

Answer 1

We need to give a chemical test to distinguish between Sodium sulfate and ammonium sulfate. So we will give a test which will show different behavior while reacting with sodium sulfate and ammonium sulfate.

Complete step-by-step answer: Sodium sulfate is an inorganic compound and the molecular formula for sodium sulfate is $N{a_2}S{O_4}$. The other inorganic salt is known as ammonium sulfate with the molecular formula ${\left( {N{H_4}} \right)_2}S{O_4}$.
So to distinguish between ammonium sulfate and ammonium sulfate we will heat both of them with $NaOH$ and then we will record our observation. We will perform a test with $NaOH$ both inorganic compounds one by one.

Sodium Sulfate	Ammonium sulfate
Ammonium sulfate on heating shows a decomposition reaction. On heating above a temperature of ${250^0}C$ will form ammonium bisulfate. Now when we increase the temperature or if we heat at a higher temperature it will decompose in ammonia, nitrogen, sulfur dioxide, and water.	Sodium sulfate does not decompose on heating like ammonium sulfate. Because sodium sulfate is chemically very stable but if sodium sulfate is heated at a higher temperature it can be reduced to sodium sulfide.
The reaction for sodium sulfate,${\left( {N{H_4}} \right)_2}S{O_4} \to \left( {N{H_4}} \right)HS{O_4}\xrightarrow{\Delta }N{H_3} + {N_2} + S{O_2} + 2{H_2}O$	The reaction for ammonium sulfate,$N{a_2}S{O_4}\xrightarrow{\Delta }N{a_2}S + 2{O_2}$

So we can conclude that we can distinguish between ammonium sulfate and sodium sulfate by heating. There will be the liberation of ammonia gas when ammonium sulfate is heated and there will be no ammonia formed after heating sodium sulfate.

Note: Most of the decomposition reactions are endothermic. Due to the breakdown of bonds, there will be a release of energy.
We will get the same observation if we heat ammonium sulfate and sodium sulfate $KOH$.