![]() The pH scale is theoretically open-ended but most pH values are in the range from 0 to 14. Each one-unit change in the pH scale corresponds to a ten-fold change in hydrogen ion concentration. In order to deal with these large numbers more easily, scientists use a logarithmic scale, the pH scale. Moreover, the hydrogen ion and hydroxide ion concentrations in everyday solutions can vary over that entire range. Here is why: a strongly acidic solution can have one hundred million million, or one hundred trillion (100,000,000,000,000) times more hydrogen ions than a strongly basic solution! The flip side, of course, is that a strongly basic solution can have 100,000,000,000,000 times more hydroxide ions than a strongly acidic solution. What is pH?Īcidity and alkalinity are measured with a logarithmic scale called pH. Because the base "soaks up" hydrogen ions, the result is a solution with more hydroxide ions than hydrogen ions. When a base is dissolved in water, the balance between hydrogen ions and hydroxide ions shifts the opposite way. This kind of solution is acidic.Ī base is a substance that accepts hydrogen ions. Now there are more hydrogen ions than hydroxide ions in the solution. Because of this, when an acid is dissolved in water, the balance between hydrogen ions and hydroxide ions is shifted. The solution is neither acidic or basic.Īn acid is a substance that donates hydrogen ions. ![]() In pure water, there are an equal number of hydrogen ions and hydroxide ions. ![]() For simplicity, hydronium ions are referred to as hydrogen ions H +. ![]() The "lost" hydrogen ions join up with water molecules to form hydronium ions (H 3O +). Some of the water molecules lose a hydrogen and become hydroxide ions (OH −). In water (H 2O), a small number of the molecules dissociate (split up). Whether a liquid is an acid or a base has to do with hydrogen ions (abbreviated with the chemical symbol H +). Acidic or Basic? What is an acid or a base? ![]()
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