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Question
What are the properties of acids, bases and salts?
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Solution
The words acid and alkaline (an older word for base) are derived from direct sensory experience.
Acid Property 1: The word acid comes from the Latin word acere, which means "sour". All acids taste sour. Well known from ancient times were vinegar, sour milk and lemon juice. Aspirin (scientific name: acetylsalicylic acid) tastes sour if you don't swallow it fast enough.
Base Property 1: The word "base" has a more complex history and its name is not related to taste. All bases taste bitter. For example, mustard is a base. It tastes bitter. Many medicines, because they are bases, taste bitter. This is the reason cough syrups are advertised as having a "great grape taste." The taste is added in order to cover the bitterness of the active ingredient in cough syrup.
Acid Property 2: Acids make a blue vegetable dye called litmus turn red.
Base Property 2: Bases are substances which will restore the original blue color of litmus after having been reddened by an acid.
Acid Property 3: Acids destroy the chemical properties of bases.
Base Property 3: Bases destroy the chemical properties of acids.
Neutralization is the name for this type of reaction.
Acid Property 4: Acids conduct electric current.
Base Property 4: Bases conduct electric current.
This is a common property shared with salts. Acids, bases and salts are grouped together into a category called electrolytes, meaning that a water solution of the given substance will conduct an electric current.
Non-electrolyte solutions cannot conduct current. The most common example of this is sugar dissolved in water.
So far, the properties have an obvious relationship: taste, color change, mutual destruction and response to electric current. This last property is related, but in a less obvious way. The property below identifies a unique chemical reaction that acids and bases engage in.
Acid Property 5: Upon chemically reacting with an active metal, acids will evolve hydrogen gas (H2). The key word, of course, is active. Some metals, like gold, silver or platnium, are rather unreactive and it takes rather extreme conditions to get these "unreactive" metals to react. Not so with the metals in this property. The include the alkali metals (Group I, Li to Rb), the alkaline earth metals (Group II, Be to Ra), as well as zinc and aluminum. Just bring the acid and the metal together at anything close to room temperature and you get a reaction. Here's a sample reaction:
Zn+2HCl(aq)⇒ZnCl2+H2
Another common acid reaction some sources mention is that acids react with carbonates (and bicarbonates) to give carbon dioxide gas:
HCl+NaCO3→CO2+H2O+NaCl
Base Property 5: Bases feel slippery or soapy. This is because they dissolve the fatty acids and oils from your skin and this cuts down on the friction between your fingers as you rub them together. In essence, the base is making soap out of you.
Acid Property 6: Acids produce hydrogen ion (H+) in solution. A more correct formula for what is produced is that of the hydronium ion, H3O+. Both formulas are used interchangeably.
Base property 6 : Bases produce OH− (hydroxide) ion in solution.
Salts
A salt is defined as a compound formed by the complete or incomplete replacement of the hydrogen ion of an acid by a basic radical.
A normal salt is formed by the complete replacement of the hydrogen ion of an acid by a basic radical whereas an acid salt is formed by the incomplete replacement of the hydrogen ion of an acid by a basic radical.
Examples of Salts
Sodium sulfate is a normal salt whereas Sodium bisulfate is an acid salt.
Sodium sulfide is soluble in water whereas Copper carbonate, Lead chloride, and Barium sulfate are insoluble in water.
Sodium carbonate is used in the manufacture of detergents and glass.
Zinc sulfide is insoluble in water whereas Potassium phosphate, Ammonium carbonate, and Barium chloride are soluble in water.
Ammonium nitrate is used in the manufacture of fertilizers.
Acid Property 1: The word acid comes from the Latin word acere, which means "sour". All acids taste sour. Well known from ancient times were vinegar, sour milk and lemon juice. Aspirin (scientific name: acetylsalicylic acid) tastes sour if you don't swallow it fast enough.
Base Property 1: The word "base" has a more complex history and its name is not related to taste. All bases taste bitter. For example, mustard is a base. It tastes bitter. Many medicines, because they are bases, taste bitter. This is the reason cough syrups are advertised as having a "great grape taste." The taste is added in order to cover the bitterness of the active ingredient in cough syrup.
Acid Property 2: Acids make a blue vegetable dye called litmus turn red.
Base Property 2: Bases are substances which will restore the original blue color of litmus after having been reddened by an acid.
Acid Property 3: Acids destroy the chemical properties of bases.
Base Property 3: Bases destroy the chemical properties of acids.
Neutralization is the name for this type of reaction.
Acid Property 4: Acids conduct electric current.
Base Property 4: Bases conduct electric current.
This is a common property shared with salts. Acids, bases and salts are grouped together into a category called electrolytes, meaning that a water solution of the given substance will conduct an electric current.
Non-electrolyte solutions cannot conduct current. The most common example of this is sugar dissolved in water.
So far, the properties have an obvious relationship: taste, color change, mutual destruction and response to electric current. This last property is related, but in a less obvious way. The property below identifies a unique chemical reaction that acids and bases engage in.
Acid Property 5: Upon chemically reacting with an active metal, acids will evolve hydrogen gas (H2). The key word, of course, is active. Some metals, like gold, silver or platnium, are rather unreactive and it takes rather extreme conditions to get these "unreactive" metals to react. Not so with the metals in this property. The include the alkali metals (Group I, Li to Rb), the alkaline earth metals (Group II, Be to Ra), as well as zinc and aluminum. Just bring the acid and the metal together at anything close to room temperature and you get a reaction. Here's a sample reaction:
Zn+2HCl(aq)⇒ZnCl2+H2
Another common acid reaction some sources mention is that acids react with carbonates (and bicarbonates) to give carbon dioxide gas:
HCl+NaCO3→CO2+H2O+NaCl
Base Property 5: Bases feel slippery or soapy. This is because they dissolve the fatty acids and oils from your skin and this cuts down on the friction between your fingers as you rub them together. In essence, the base is making soap out of you.
Acid Property 6: Acids produce hydrogen ion (H+) in solution. A more correct formula for what is produced is that of the hydronium ion, H3O+. Both formulas are used interchangeably.
Base property 6 : Bases produce OH− (hydroxide) ion in solution.
Salts
A salt is defined as a compound formed by the complete or incomplete replacement of the hydrogen ion of an acid by a basic radical.
A normal salt is formed by the complete replacement of the hydrogen ion of an acid by a basic radical whereas an acid salt is formed by the incomplete replacement of the hydrogen ion of an acid by a basic radical.
Examples of Salts
Sodium sulfate is a normal salt whereas Sodium bisulfate is an acid salt.
Sodium sulfide is soluble in water whereas Copper carbonate, Lead chloride, and Barium sulfate are insoluble in water.
Sodium carbonate is used in the manufacture of detergents and glass.
Zinc sulfide is insoluble in water whereas Potassium phosphate, Ammonium carbonate, and Barium chloride are soluble in water.
Ammonium nitrate is used in the manufacture of fertilizers.
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