Double salt
A double salt is a salt that contains more than one cation or more than one anion. Examples of double salts include alums and Tutton's salts. Other examples include potassium sodium tartrate, ammonium iron sulfate, and bromlite. The fluorocarbonates contain fluoride and carbonate anions. Many coordination complexes form double salts.
Double salts should not be confused with complexes. When dissolved in water, a double salt completely dissociates into simple ions while a hexaaquo complex does not; the complex ion remains unchanged. Similarly, K4 is a complex salt and contains the discrete 4− ion, which remains intact in aqueous solutions. In many cases, the complex ion is indicated by square brackets "". Double salts are distinct from mixed-crystal systems where two salts cocrystallise; the former involves a chemical combination with fixed composition, whereas the latter is a mixture.
In general, the properties of the double salt formed will not be the same as the properties of its component single salts.
