Question

What are acidic hydrogens? Give an example.

Answer 1

Acidic hydrogens

• Acidic hydrogen is a hydrogen atom in an acid that dissociates to generate a positive ion.
• 'Acidic hydrogen' signifies that it has a tendency to be discharged as${\mathrm{H}}^{+}$ ion.

Example of acidic hydrogen

• In the case of methanoic acid$\left(\mathrm{HCOOH}\right)$, dissociation happens as shown below:

$\mathrm{HCOOH}\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)\rightleftharpoons {\mathrm{H}}^{+}\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)+{\mathrm{HCOO}}^{-}\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)$

• In the above example, acidic hydrogen is the hydrogen atom present in the carboxylate group.