An acid is a molecule or ion capable of either donating a proton (i.e., hydrogen ion, H+), known as a Brønsted–Lowry acid, or, capable of forming a covalent bond with an electron pair, known as a Lewis acid.
An acid–base reaction is a chemical reaction that occurs between an acid and a base. It can be used to determine pH. Several theoretical frameworks provide alternative conceptions of the reaction mechanisms and their application in solving related problems; these are called the acid–base theories, for example, Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory.
In chemistry, pH (, denoting 'potential of hydrogen' or 'power of hydrogen') is a scale used to specify the acidity or basicity of an aqueous solution. Acidic solutions (solutions with higher concentrations of H+ ions) are measured to have lower pH values than basic or alkaline solutions.
Titration is a common laboratory method of quantitative chemical analysis to determine the concentration of an identified analyte. A reagent, termed the titrant or titrator, is prepared as a standard solution of known concentration and volume. The titrant reacts with a solution of analyte to determine the analyte's concentration. The volume of titrant that reacted with the analyte is termed the titration volume.
A buffer solution is an aqueous solution consisting of a mixture of a weak acid and its conjugate base, or vice versa. Its pH changes very little when a small amount of strong acid or base is added to it. Buffer solutions are used as a means of keeping pH at a nearly constant value in a wide variety of chemical applications. In nature, there are many systems that use buffering for pH regulation. For example, the bicarbonate buffering system is used to regulate the pH of blood, and bicarbonate also acts as a buffer in the ocean.
An acid dissociation constant, Ka, is a quantitative measure of the strength of an acid in solution. It is the equilibrium constant for a chemical reaction
Solubility equilibrium is a type of dynamic equilibrium that exists when a chemical compound in the solid state is in chemical equilibrium with a solution of that compound. The solid may dissolve unchanged, with dissociation or with chemical reaction with another constituent of the solution, such as acid or alkali. Each solubility equilibrium is characterized by a temperature-dependent solubility product which functions like an equilibrium constant. Solubility equilibria are important in pharmaceutical, environmental and many other scenarios.
A pH indicator is a halochromic chemical compound added in small amounts to a solution so the pH (acidity or basicity) of the solution can be determined visually. Hence, a pH indicator is a chemical detector for hydronium ions (H3O+) or hydrogen ions (H+) in the Arrhenius model. Normally, the indicator causes the color of the solution to change depending on the pH. Indicators can also show change in other physical properties; for example, olfactory indicators show change in their odor. The pH value of a neutral solution is 7.0 at 25°C (standard laboratory conditions). Solutions with a pH value below 7.0 are considered acidic and solutions with pH value above 7.0 are basic (alkaline). As most naturally occurring organic compounds are weak protolytes, carboxylic acids and amines, pH indicators find many applications in biology and analytical chemistry. Moreover, pH indicators form one of the three main types of indicator compounds used in chemical analysis. For the quantitative analysis of metal cations, the use of complexometric indicators is preferred, whereas the third compound class, the redox indicators, are used in titrations involving a redox reaction as the basis of the analysis.
In chemistry, there are three definitions in common use of the word base, known as Arrhenius bases, Brønsted bases, and Lewis bases. All definitions agree that bases are substances which react with acids as originally proposed by G.-F. Rouelle in the mid-18th century.
The common-ion effect refers to the decrease in solubility of an ionic precipitate by the addition to the solution of a soluble compound with an ion in common with the precipitate. This behaviour is a consequence of Le Chatelier's principle for the equilibrium reaction of the ionic association/dissociation. The effect is commonly seen as an effect on the solubility of salts and other weak electrolytes. Adding an additional amount of one of the ions of the salt generally leads to increased precipitation of the salt, which reduces the concentration of both ions of the salt until the solubility equilibrium is reached. The effect is based on the fact that both the original salt and the other added chemical have one ion in common with each other.
A weak base is a base that, upon dissolution in water, does not dissociate completely, so that the resulting aqueous solution contains only a small proportion of hydroxide ions and the concerned basic radical, and a large proportion of undissociated molecules of the base.
In chemistry and biochemistry, the Henderson–Hasselbalch equation
In chemistry, neutralization or neutralisation is a chemical reaction in which acid and a base react quantitatively with each other. In a reaction in water, neutralization results in there being no excess of hydrogen or hydroxide ions present in the solution. The pH of the neutralized solution depends on the acid strength of the reactants.
An acid–base titration is a method of quantitative analysis for determining the concentration of an acid or base by exactly neutralizing it with a standard solution of base or acid having known concentration. A pH indicator is used to monitor the progress of the acid–base reaction. If the acid dissociation constant (pKa) of the acid or base dissociation constant (pKb) of base in the analyte solution is known, its solution concentration (molarity) can be determined. Alternately, the pKa can be determined if the analyte solution has a known solution concentration by constructing a titration curve.
The equilibrium constant of a chemical reaction is the value of its reaction quotient at chemical equilibrium, a state approached by a dynamic chemical system after sufficient time has elapsed at which its composition has no measurable tendency towards further change. For a given set of reaction conditions, the equilibrium constant is independent of the initial analytical concentrations of the reactant and product species in the mixture. Thus, given the initial composition of a system, known equilibrium constant values can be used to determine the composition of the system at equilibrium. However, reaction parameters like temperature, solvent, and ionic strength may all influence the value of the equilibrium constant.
Dissociation in chemistry and biochemistry is a general process in which molecules (or ionic compounds such as salts, or complexes) separate or split into other things such as atoms, ions, or radicals, usually in a reversible manner. For instance, when an acid dissolves in water, a covalent bond between an electronegative atom and a hydrogen atom is broken by heterolytic fission, which gives a proton (H+) and a negative ion. Dissociation is the opposite of association or recombination. It is not a chemical reaction
An acidity function is a measure of the acidity of a medium or solvent system, usually expressed in terms of its ability to donate protons to a solute. The pH scale is by far the most commonly used acidity function, and is ideal for dilute aqueous solutions. Other acidity functions have been proposed for different environments, most notably the Hammett acidity function, H0, for superacid media and its modified version H− for superbasic media. The term acidity function is also used for measurements made on basic systems, and the term basicity function is uncommon.
The Charlot equation, named after Gaston Charlot, is used in analytical chemistry to relate the hydrogen ion concentration, and therefore the pH, with the formal analytical concentration of an acid and its conjugate base. It can be used for computing the pH of buffer solutions when the approximations of the Henderson–Hasselbalch equation break down. The Henderson–Hasselbalch equation assumes that the autoionization of water is negligible and that the dissociation or hydrolysis of the acid and the base in solution are negligible.
Equilibrium chemistry is concerned with systems in chemical equilibrium. The unifying principle is that the free energy of a system at equilibrium is the minimum possible, so that the slope of the free energy with respect to the reaction coordinate is zero. This principle, applied to mixtures at equilibrium provides a definition of an equilibrium constant. Applications include acid–base, host–guest, metal–complex, solubility, partition, chromatography and redox equilibria.
Acid strength is the tendency of an acid, symbolised by the chemical formula , to dissociate into a proton, , and an anion, . The dissociation of a strong acid in solution is effectively complete, except in its most concentrated solutions.
