Question

Write the two components of baking powder.

Answer 1

The baking soda mainly has the carbonate of alkali metal and weak acid in its composition. The weak acid is utilized to neutralize the basic salts. The baking soda also has some amount of starch.

Complete step by step answer:
Baking soda is mainly a mixture of bases such as carbonate or bicarbonate and weak acid.
The chemical formula of baking powder is ${\text{NaHC}}{{\text{O}}_{\text{3}}}$.
When the baking powder is heated with the food, sodium hydrogen carbonate decomposes and releases the carbon dioxide gas in the form of bubbles. This gas increases the volume of the dough. So, the baking powder is used to give the volume to the dough.
The decomposition reaction of sodium hydrogen carbonate is as follows:
${\text{2NaHC}}{{\text{O}}_{\text{3}}}\,\mathop \to \limits^\Delta {\text{N}}{{\text{a}}_{\text{2}}}{\text{C}}{{\text{O}}_{\text{3}}}\,{\text{ + }}\,{\text{C}}{{\text{O}}_{\text{2}}}\, + \,{{\text{H}}_2}{\text{O}}$
The decomposition of sodium hydrogen carbonate on heating produces sodium carbonate, carbon dioxide, and water.
To neutralize the sodium carbonate, a weak acid such as tartaric acid is added to the sodium hydrogen carbonate.If the tartaric acid is not added to the baking powder, the test of food will be bitter due to the presence of sodium carbonate.
The baking powder mainly contains a base and acid. To prevent the reaction of acid and base before use, the corn-starch is added. Corn-starch works as a buffer.

**Therefore, the main components of the baking powder are sodium bicarbonate and tartaric acid.

Note: **
The acid can vary according to the quality of the baking powder. The acid added in a baking powder can be slow or fast reacting. The slow-reacting acid only reacts when the baking powder is heated whereas the fast-reacting acid reacts at room temperature that is why some dough gains volume on heating whereas some dough gains volume in sunlight.