Acids and Bases

Acids and bases will neutralize one another to form liquid water and a salt.

An Arrhenius acid dissociates in water to form hydrogen ions, while an Arrhenius base dissociates in water to form hydroxide ions.

A Brønsted-Lowry acid is any species capable of donating a proton; a Brønsted-Lowry base is any species capable of accepting a proton.

Water is capable of acting as either an acid or a base and can undergo self-ionization.

The acid dissociation constant (K_a) is the measure of the strength of an acid in solution.

A p-scale is a negative logarithmic scale.

In water, strong acids completely dissociate into free protons and their conjugate base.

A weak acid only partially dissociates in solution.

Percent dissociation represents an acid's strength and can be calculated using the K_a value and the solution's pH.

Strong bases either dissociate completely in solution to yield hydroxide ions, or deprotonate water to yield hydroxide ions.

In aqueous solution, a weak base reacts incompletely with water to yield hydroxide ions.

The base dissociation constant (K_b) measures a base's relative strength.

Diprotic and polyprotic acids contain multiple acidic protons that dissociate in distinct, sequential steps.

Polyprotic acids have complex equilibria due to the presence of multiple species in solution.

Binary acids are certain molecular compounds in which hydrogen is bonded with a nonmetal.

An oxoacid is an acid that contains oxygen.

When dissolved in water, a basic salt yields a solution with pH greater than 7.0.

When dissolved in water, acidic salts form solutions with pH less than 7.0.

Some salts, such as ammonium bicarbonate (NH₄HCO₃), contain cations and anions that can both undergo hydrolysis.

Some metal hydroxides are amphoteric, or capable of acting as either an acid or base.

Lewis bases are electron-pair donors, whereas Lewis acids are electron-pair acceptors.

Transition metals can act as Lewis acids by accepting electron pairs from donor Lewis bases to form complex ions.