Reactions That Form Water: Acids and Bases
- Acids were first associated with the sour taste of citrus fruit
- Bases are characterized by their bitter taste and slippery feel
- Arrhenius proposed that an acid is a substance that produces H+ ions (protons) when it is dissolved in water
- Virtually no HCL molecules exist in aqueous solution
- Arrhenius also found that aqueous solutions that exhibit basic behavior always contain hydroxide ions
- He defined a base as a substance that produces hydroxide ions in water
Summary of Strong Acids and Strong Bases:
- The common strong acids are aqueous solutions of HCL, HNO3, and H2SO4
- A strong acid is a substance that completely dissociates (ionizes) in water. (each molecule breaks up into an H+ io plus an anion)
- A strong base is a metal hydroxide compound that is very soluble in water. The most common strong bases are NaOH and KOH,which completely break up into separated ions when they are dissolved in water
- The net ionic equation for the reaction of a strong acid and a strong base is always the same: it shows the production of water
- In the reaction of a strong acid and a strong base, one product is always water and the other is always an ionic compound called a salt, which remains dissolved in the water. This salt can be obtained as a solid by evaporating the water
- The reaction of H+ and OH- is often called an acid-base reaction, where H+ is the acidic ion and OH- is the basic ion