Acid-base equilibria
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There's a question in the Nuffield Chemistry students' book which asks why 'bare' uncombined protons are thought unlikely to exist in aqueous solutions, and what is likely to happen to any such protons. We don't get it at all!
Jenkin replies:
Think about a proton: it is very, very tiny. But it has a 1+ charge, equal to that carried by, for example, a sodium ion which is much, much larger.
So the proton has a very high charge density and is immediately attracted to the negative area of a water molecule, that is, one of its lone pairs of electrons. Result: the formation of H3O+.
Risk assessment
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updated: 22 January 2006
