Reaction between sodium carbonate & water

[concombres]

Can somebody please explain what is going on when sodium carbonate is dissolved in water? Out of curiosity i started looking into this & it is interesting but i seem to have hit a wall here.

Sodium carbonate + h2O ---> aqueous sodium hydroxide + aqueous carbonic acid.

But then aqueous carbonic acid reacts with sodium hydroxide to form sodium carbonate & water.

This whole thing seems to be just a big circle to me. What exactly is occuring in solution here & what are the end products?

 

[Jees]

Is about it:

 

[downwardsfromzero]

sodium carbonate = sodium ions + carbonate ions.

In solution, some of the carbonate ions mop up protons from the water to form hydrogencarbonate (bicarbonate) ions. The protons came from water molecules, so there is a corresponding hydroxide ion left over for each bicarbonate ion.

sodium carbonate + water = sodium ions + carbonate ions + hydroxide ions + bicarbonate ions.

Write out a balanced equation as an exercise if you like, concombres.