Acids

What makes a substance an acid ? Look at the formulae of the following strong acids: H2SO4 sulphuric acid HCl hydrochloric acid HNO3 nitric acid H3PO4 phosphoric acid What they all have in common is hydrogen in their formula and more importantly in solutions these substances split up into ions. Providing hydrogen ions, H+(aq), is what makes all these acids. Substances such as ammonia (NH3) and methane (CH4) also have hydrogen in their formula, but they dont produce hydrogen ions in solution so they arent acids.

The pH of a solution is used to indicate how acidic it is. A pH of less than 7 is acidic and a solution of more than 7 is alkaline. Exactly pH7 is called neutral.
Indicators such as Universal Indicator turn different colours to show the pH of the solution they are added to.

Bases Bases are substances which can neutralise acids reacting with them to form water. Bases may be insoluble in water (e.g. metal oxides such as calcium oxide) or soluble in water (e.g. some metal hydroxides sodium hydroxide) in which case we call them alkalis.

An alkali is a soluble base, which makes a solution alkaline by providing hydroxide ions (OH-) in the solution.
What happens during a neutralisation: When an acidic solution is neutralised by an alkaline solution, it is the hydrogen ions from the acid which are reacting with the hydroxide ions from the alkali. We can write an ionic equation to show how these ions react:

H+(aq)
hydrogen ion

+
+

OH-(aq)
hydroxide ion

H2O(l)
water

Reactions of acids
Acids react with some metals, metal oxides and metal hydroxides. These reactions are used to make soluble salts. The salt solutions can then be crystallised to produce solid salt. The particular salt produced in any reaction between an acid and a metal, base or alkali depends on:

- the acid used hydrochloric acid produces chlorides nitric acid produces nitrates sulphuric acid produces sulphates the metal in the base or alkali

copper sulphate, made in the reaction of copper oxide with sulphuric acid

e.g. copper oxide will react with sulphuric acid to make copper sulphate magnesium will react with hydrochloric acid to make magnesium chloride sodium hydroxide will react with nitric acid to make sodium nitrate Ammonia, NH3, dissolves in water to produce an alkaline solution of ammonium hydroxide, containing ammonium ions, NH4+(aq). These react with acids to produce ammonium salts.

Acids + Metals
Acids react with metals according to the general equation: ACID + METAL SALT + HYDROGEN The metal is added to the acid until no more fizzing takes place (i.e. all the acid has reacted). The excess metal is then filtered off, and the solid salt can be obtained by crystallising the salt solution.

Not all metals are suitable, some are too reactive (e.g. the metals in Group 1 Sodium, Lithium, Potassium etc), and others are not reactive enough (e.g. copper, silver, gold)
The hydrogen which is produced in these reactions is seen as bubbles being produced. A lit splint will ignite the hydrogen with a squeaky pop, showing the gas to be hydrogen. examples:

Mg(s) + 2 HCl(aq) MgCl2(aq) + H2(g)

Zn(s) + H2SO4(aq) ZnSO4(aq) + H2(g)

Acids + Metal Oxides

Acids react with insoluble bases such as metal oxides according to the general equation: ACID + METAL OXIDE SALT + WATER The insoluble metal oxide is added until no more reacts (because all the acid has been used up). As it reacts with the acid it dissolves, forming a solution of the salt. When no more metal oxide dissolves, the remaining unreacted metal oxide is filtered off. Gentle heat is often needed to encourage the reaction to go at a reasonable rate. examples: CuO(s) + H2SO4(aq) CuSO4(aq) + H2O(l) CaO(s) + 2 HCl(aq) CaCl2(aq) + H2O(l) MgO(s) + 2 HNO3(aq) Mg(NO3)2(aq) + H2O(l)

Acids + Alkalis (metal hydroxides):

Acids react with solutions of metal hydroxides according to the general equation: ACID + METAL HYDROXIDE SALT + WATER

Both acid and metal hydroxide are likely to be colourless solutions, and the salt will be a colourless solution too. This makes it difficult to see that a reaction is taking place, or when the reaction is finished because the acid has been completely neutralised by the added alkali.

examples:

H2SO4(aq) + 2NaOH(aq) Na2SO4(aq) + 2H2O(l) HNO3(aq) + KOH(aq) KNO3(aq) + H2O(l) 2HCl(aq) + Ca(OH)2(aq) CaCl2(aq) + 2H2O(l)

An indicator can be added to the solution, so that its colour change can be used to tell when the acid has been completely neutralised. Once the exact amount of acid needed to neutralise the alkali has been measured, the experiment can be repeated without the indicator, to make a pure solution of the salt, which can then be crystallised.

Ammonium salts:
When ammonia dissolves in water it produces ammonium ions and hydroxide ions. This makes an ammonia solution alkaline.

NH3(g) + H2O(l) NH4+(aq) + OH-(aq)

- also written as NH4OH(aq)

The hydroxide ions in ammonia solution can be neutralised by the hydrogen ions in acids, forming water and an ammonium salt. The solid salt can be obtained from the solution by crystallisation. These salts are very important as fertilisers. e.g. the fertiliser Nitram is ammonium nitrate.

examples:
NH4OH(aq) + HNO3(aq) NH4NO3(aq) + H2O(l) 2 NH4OH(aq) + H2SO4(aq) (NH4)2SO4(aq) + 2H2O(l)

Making insoluble salts:

Many salts are not soluble in water. A different method, precipitation, is used to prepare them. The name of the insoluble salt tells you which metal ion and which other ion will be needed to form the salt. For example to make insoluble lead iodide, we need lead ions and iodide ions.

Pb2+(aq) + 2I-(aq) PbI2(s)

When a solution containing lead ions is mixed with a solution containing iodide ions, the two solutions react and a precipitate of the insoluble salt (lead iodide) settles out. A precipitate is a solid, so it can be filtered off, washed then dried. The two solutions we mix together need to be of soluble salts. For metals: the nitrates are a good choice because all nitrates are soluble. In this case wed choose lead nitrate.

For the other ions: sodium or potassium salts are a good choice because they are soluble. In this case we could choose potassium iodide.

Pb(NO3)2(aq) + 2 KI(aq) PbI2(s) + 2 KNO3(aq)

lead nitrate potassium iodide lead iodide potassium nitrate

Examples: Making silver bromide, AgBr Ag+(aq) + Br-(aq) AgBr(s)

Wed choose to react silver nitrate a soluble salt containing silver ions, with sodium bromide a soluble salt containing bromide ions. Sodium nitrate remains in solution after the reaction, and the insoluble silver bromide can be filtered off.

AgNO3(aq) + NaBr(aq) AgBr(s) + NaNO3(aq)

Making barium sulphate, BaSO4

Ba2+(aq) + SO42-(aq) BaSO4(s)

Wed choose to react barium nitrate a soluble salt containing barium ions, with sodium sulphate a soluble salt containing sulphate ions. Sodium nitrate remains in solution after the reaction, and the insoluble barium sulphate can be filtered off.

Ba(NO3)2(aq) + Na2SO4(aq) BaSO4(s) + 2NaNO3(aq)

Removing harmful ions from water:

Precipitation reactions can be very useful, since they can turn an unwanted metal ion which is dissolved into a solid precipitate which can be filtered off. Heavy metal ions such as barium or lead are harmful in drinking water, and cause problems for aquatic life if released into rivers in the effluent water from industrial processes. A precipitation reaction can be used to remove them. The hydroxides of heavy metals are insoluble, so by raising the pH of the water (adding hydroxide ions) the metal ions will react with the hydroxide ions forming a precipitate of the metal hydroxide. Sodium hydroxide solution is commonly used to raise the pH of water. e.g. lead ions + hydroxide ions lead hydroxide

Pb2+(aq) + 2OH-(aq) Pb(OH)2(s)