Acids and Bases Flashcards
What is the Arrhernius model of acids and bases?
- Acids dissociate and release H+ ions in aqueous solution
- Alkalis dissociate and release OH- ions in aqueous solution
- H+ ion are neutralised by OH- ions to form water:
H+(aq) + OH-(aq) —> H2O (l)
What is an acid?
A species that releases H+ ions in aqueous solutions
What is an alkali?
A type of base that dissolves in water forming hydroxide ions, OH-(aq) ions
What is a base?
A compound that neutralises an acid to form a salt
What is a Bronsted-Lowry acid?
A proton donor
What is a Bronsted-Lowry base?
A proton acceptor
What is a conjugate acid-base pair?
- Contains two species that can be interconverted by transfer of a proton
- HCL(aq) (equilibrium sign) H+ (aq) + Cl- (aq)
- E.G HCL and Cl-
What happens in the forward direction?
HCL releases a proton to form its conjugate base Cl-
What happens in the reverse direction?
Cl- accepts a proton to form its conjugate acid HCL
How can neutralisation be down?
H+ (aq) + OH- (aq) –> H2O (l)
In Hydrochloric acid how have the H+ ions been supplied by dissociation?
HCl (aq) (equilibrium arrow) H+ (aq) + Cl-(aq)
What is the conjugate acid equilibrium for HCL?
HCL (aq) + OH- (aq) (equilibrium arrow) H2O (l) + Cl- (aq)
What happens in the forward direction of the conjugate acid equilibrium for HCL?
- HCL is an acid as it donates H+
- OH- is a base as it accepts H+
What happens in the reverse direction of the conjugate acid equilibrium for HCL?
- H2O is an acid is it donates H+
- Cl0 is a base as it accepts H+
What is needed for dissociation?
- In aqueous solution dissociation requires a proton to be transferred from an acid to a base
- The dissociation does not take place unless water is present
What is the equation for the acid-base equilibrium for hydrochloric acid with the hydronium ion H3O + (aq)?
HCL (aq) + H2O (l) (equilibrium arrow) H3O+ (aq) + Cl- (aq)
Describe the acid-base equilibrium for hydrochloric acid with the hydronium ion H3O + (aq)
- Water accepts a proton and is behaving as a base
- H2) has accepted a proton to form its conjugate acid, the hydronium ion H3O+ (aq)
- The hydronium ion is very important, as it is the active acid ingredient in any aqueous acid
- You can use H3O+ in equation but you will see that it is far more common to use the simpler H+ (aq)
What do the terms mono basic, dibasic and tribasic acids refer to?
- The total number of hydrogen ions in the acid that can be replaced per molecule in an acid-base reaction
- This would typically be replacement of protons by metal ions or ammonium ions to form a salt
- No of hydrogen atoms in formula gives a clue
What is the role of H+ in the reactions of acids?
- Acids react with metals, carbonates, metal oxides, and alkalis to form salts
- The active species from the acid is H+ (aq) and ionic equations can be written for each type of reaction to emphasise the role of H+ ions
What is important to remember in ionic equations?
- Split up ionic/aq into it’s ions and keep l,s,g the same and then cancel out spectator ions
- When writing ionic equations with H+ (aq) the acid does not matter, ti is the same reaction
What are spectator ions?
- Spectator ions are ions that do not change during the reactions
- In the equations, spectator ions can simply be cancelled out
- You then know that any acid will react with magnesium to form Mg 2+ (aq) ions and hydrogen gas
What is the redox reaction between an acid and metal?
acid + metal –> salt and hydrogen
- Dilute acids undergo redox reaction with some metals to produce salts and hydrogen gas
- E.G for zinc, the ionic equation for a reaction with any dilute acid is 2H+ (aq) + Zn (s) –> Zn2+ (aq) + H2 (g)
What is the neutralisation of acids with carbonates? (reactions between acids and bases)
acid + carbonate –> salt + water + carbon dioxide
-Carbonates are bases that neutralise acids to form a salt, water and carbon dioxide
What is the neutralisation of acids with alkalis? (reactions between acids and bases)
acid + alkali –> salt + water
-With alkalis, the acid and base are in solution
What is the neutralisation of acids with metal oxides? (reactions between acids and bases)
acid + base –> salt + water
-An acid is neutralised by a solid metal side or hydroxide to form a salt and water only
What did Soren Sorensen do?
- Introduced pH as a simple numerical scale for measuring hydrogen ion concentrations
- Found that hydrogen ion concentrations in solution had a very large range of values with negative powers of 10
- He used the native logarithm of these hydrogen ion concentrations to produce a more manageable scale
- Using his scale, hydrogen ion concentration fo 10-1 to 1o-14 are converted to pH values of 2 to 14
- Simple and easier to sue
For an solution at 25 degrees what does the pH mean?
- Less than 7 shows decreasing acidity
- Greater than 7 shows decreasing acidity
- 7 is neutral
How was acidity measured prior?
- Before Sorensen’s pH scale the degree of acidity and basicity in solution was measured as colours using indicators
- He added numbers to the colours
- His method relied on measuring hydrogen ion using an electrochemical cell
How is pH measured today?
- pH meters are used for measuring the pH accurately and are based on the same principle
- pH indicator paper or universal indicator solution is still used as an easier and cheaper, through less accurate alternative