Upon dissolution in water, does sodium acetate give a BASIC or an ACIDIC solution?

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Upon dissolution in water, does sodium acetate give a BASIC or an ACIDIC solution?

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Answer 1 · 2017-02-13T20:02:15

Sodium acetate gives a slightly basic aqueous solution........

Explanation:

........which we may represent by the equation:

$H_{3} {CC(=O)O}^{-} + H_{2} O(l) ⇌ H_{3} CC(=O)OH(aq) +^{-} OH$ $"H"_3"CC(=O)O"^(-) + "H"_2"O(l)" rightleftharpoons "H"_3"CC(=O)OH(aq)"+""^(-)"OH"$

The conjugate base of a weak acid, by definition, competes fairly strongly for the proton, and thus gives rise to a slightly basic aqueous solution. Given the ${pK}_{a}$ $"pK"_a$ of $acetic acid$ $"acetic acid"$ , and a starting concentration, the $pH$ $"pH"$ of the resultant solution may be calculated. How does the ${pK}_{a}$ $"pK"_a$ of $acetic acid$ $"acetic acid"$ relate to the ${pK}_{b}$ $"pK"_b$ of $acetate ion$ $"acetate ion"$ ?

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Upon dissolution in water, does sodium acetate give a BASIC or an ACIDIC solution?

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