Hello, I have a question about something we learned in chemistry today.
We've been going over Ka/Kb table values, and using them to determine if a solution is acidic, basic or neutral.
One of the compounds (in aqueous solution) are NH4OCl (aq), which is supposedly basic. Can someone explain why that is?
1 answer
For the salt of a weak acid and a weak base, (H^+) = sqrt(KwKa/Kb). For NH4OCl, that is about 4 x 10^-9 or pK about 8.4 (which is slightly basic). What it boils down to, if you look at the equation, is the Kw part will give neutral. If Ka = Kb, the solution is neutral. If Ka>Kb the solution is acid, if Ka<Kb, the solution is basic.
1 answer