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Acid-Base Properties of Salts
 When a salt dissolves in water, we assume that it breaks up into its ions.
 Under certain conditions these ions can behave as acids or bases.
 A salt is an ionic compound.
 Salts That Produce Neutral Solutions
 Salts That Produce Basic Solutions
 Salts That Produce Acidic Solutions
Salts that Produce Neutral Solutions
 Salts that consist of the cations of strong bases and the anions of strong acids
have no effect on the H+ concentration when dissolved in water such as KCl,
NaCl, NaNO3 and KNO3.

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 Salts that Produce Basic Solutions
 For any salt consisting of the cation of strong bases (neutral properties)
and the anion of weak acids (conjugate base), the aqueous solution will be
basic.
 Example : NaC2H3O2 M.S: Na+, C2H3O2- and H2O
 Na+ is neutral
 C2H3O2- is the conjugate base of acetic acid, a weak acid.
 Therefore C2H3O2- is a strong base and has a significant affinity for
protons. Water is neither a strong acid nor a strong base.
 Hence the C2H3O2- will react with the strongest acid (water)
C2H3O2-(aq) + H2O(l) ↔ HC2H3O2 (aq) + HO-(aq)

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Example
Calculate the pH of a 0.3 M NaF solution. The Ka value for HF is 7.2 x 10-4
Solution
The major species are : Na+ F- and H2

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Salts That Produce Acidic Solutions
 For any salt consisting of the cation of weak bases (conjugate acid) and the
anion of strong acids (neutral properties), the aqueous solution will be
acidic.
 For example when solid NH4Cl is dissolved in water , NH4+ and Cl- ions
are released with NH4+ behaving as weak acid:
NH4+ ↔ NH3 + H+
 The Cl- ion, having virtually no affinity for H+ in water, does not affect
the pH of the solution.

 A second type of salt that produces an acidic solution is the one that
contains highly charged metal ion.
Al(H2O)63+ ↔ Al(OH)(H2 O)52+ + H +

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Example
Calculate the pH of a 0.1 M NH4 Cl solution . The Kb value for NH3 is 1.8 x
10-5.
Solution
M.S: NH4+ Cl- and H2 O
NH4+ ↔ NH3 + H+

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Salts containing acidic and basic ions
 NH4C2H3O2
 Both ions affect the pH of the solution.
 Solution will be acidic, basic or neutral by comparing the Ka of the acidic
ion with the Kb of the basic ion.

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Example
Predict whether an aqueous solution of each of the following salts will be
acidic , basic or neutral.
a. NH4 C2 H3 O2 b. NH4 CN

Solution :
a.. the ions in solution are NH4+ and C2 H3 O2-. As we mentioned previously
ka for NH4+ is 5.6 x 10-10 and Kb for C2 H3 O2- is 5.6 x 10-10. Thus, since for
Ka for NH4+ is equal to kb for C2 H3 O2-, the solution will be neutral pH = 7

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Example
Predict whether an aqueous solution of each of the following salts will be
acidic , basic or neutral.
a. NH4 C2 H3 O2 b. NH4 CN

Solution :
b.. The solution will contain NH4+ and CN- ions. The Ka value for NH4+ is 5.6
x 10-10. Ka for HCN = 6.2 x 10-10.

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