Question #e7848

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Question #e7848

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Answer 1 · 2017-12-06T00:26:30

$N H_{4}^{+}$ $NH_4^+$ is the acid.
$O H^{-}$ $OH^-$ is the base
$N H_{3}$ $NH_3$ is the conjugate base
$H_{2} O$ $H_2O$ is the conjugate acid

Explanation:

The best way to figure out what's an acid or a base is to simply track the movement of your $H^{+}$ $H^+$ ions.

The species that donates an $H^{+}$ $H^+$ ion is an $acid$ $color(red)("acid")$ .
The species that recieves an $H^{+}$ $H^+$ ion is a $base$ $color(blue)("base")$ .

Notice that the $N H_{4}^{+}$ $NH_4^+$ ends up becoming $N H_{3}$ $NH_3$ , indicating the loss of one $H^{+}$ $H^+$ ion. Similarly, $O H^{-}$ $OH^-$ becomes $H_{2} O$ $H_2O$ , indicating a gain of a $H^{+}$ $H^+$ ion.

So, you can say that $N H_{4}^{+}$ $NH_4^+$ is the acid, and $O H^{-}$ $OH^-$ is the base.

Conjugates are basically the "other" term. For every acid, you have a conjugate base (that no longer has that extra $H^{+}$ $H^+$ ion), and for every base, you have a conjugate acid (that has an extra $H^{+}$ $H^+$ ion).

As mentioned above, $N H_{4}^{+}$ $NH_4^+$ ends up becoming $N H_{3}$ $NH_3$ post deprotonation (donation of the $H^{+}$ $H^+$ ) ion, so $N H_{3}$ $NH_3$ is your conjugate base. Similarly, $O H^{-}$ $OH^-$ becomes $H_{2} O$ $H_2O$ post protonation, so it is your conjugate acid.

Hope that helped :)

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Question #e7848

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