Properties of Bases

 Hello fam, I believe that we are really getting somewhere as we study together all these while. Chemistry Made Easy is a large learning community that is growing by leaps and bounds. I am glad to announce that our YouTube channel would be fully functional by August 1. We would also have a live seminar about how to study chemistry and understand it better on this platform before the end of July(the date would be communicated in due course). To join our WhatsApp group, kindly send a Whatsapp message to +234 809 052 6258 .


Today we would be discussing about the properties of bases. We shall divide the properties of bases into physical properties and chemical properties.


Physical properties of bases;

1) A caustic base is corrosive: This implies that a concentrated base solution could burn off your skin and destructively interact with other surfaces. Caustic potassium hydroxide or sodium hydroxide are important examples of caustic bases. For the definition of a concentrated solution, check out the post on June 23, 2023 found on the page timeline.

2) A base turns red litmus paper to blue. Litmus paper is a type of indicator. An indicator is a substance that tells us whether a substance is acidic, basic or neutral. We shall discuss in detail about the chemistry behind the working of Acid – Base indicators shortly.

3) Bases are slippery to touch – Bases actually feel like soap when you touch them.

4) Bases have a bitter taste. A classic example of a bitter base is quinine. It is a substance used as an antimalarial medication and obtained from the bark of a  Remijia or Cinchona tree.

5) Strong base solutions serve as electrolytes; When direct current is passed through a solution of a strong base, an electrochemical cell is set up as the solution begins to conduct electricity.


Chemical properties of a base;

1) Reaction with acids; Acids can combine with a base to form a salt and water. We shall discuss salts in detail shortly. Two reactions that illustrate this property are shown below;

NaOH(aq) + HCl(aq) --->NaCl(aq) + H2O(l)

Base              Acid               Salt             Water

CuO(s)  + H2SO4(aq)  ---->CuSO4(aq) + H2O(l)

Base         Acid                       Salt                Water

2) Bases can react with ammonium salts to produce ammonia gas as typified below;

NaOH(aq) + NH4NO3(aq) -->NaNO3(aq) + H2O(l) + NH3(g)


Tomorrow shall be quite interesting! We would look at one biological importance of a certain class of inorganic bases and that would lead us into the larger subject of considering the practical uses of bases. See you then!


Hope you enjoyed our lesson today?

Follow  our page  and share!

Do you have assignments, term papers, projects and difficult homework questions? Contact us for help now! We also offer home and remote tutoring services to students at all levels in science subjects.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Definition of acids 2 - Introduction to Lewis Acids

Image
 Hello fam! Welcome to today’s lesson. We started to look at the concept of acid definition in yesterday’s lesson. We saw yesterday that acids have been defined by Arrhenius and BrØnsted – Lowry. The Arrhenius definition is limited in the sense that it does not account for behavior of acids in nonaqueous media. Did you try the assignment yesterday? The answers are attached to this post. I believe that the concept of proton donation is now clear to you after looking at the images attached. Reach out to me if you have any challenge. Now let us talk about the Lewis definition of acids. This definition of acids was put out by G. N Lewis in 1923. There is a foundation that we need in order to have an understanding of the idea that was put forward by Lewis.  There is something called an orbital in an atom. It is a region in space where there is a high probability of finding the electron. Now let us assume that your office is at No.38 Bronx street. I may not find you everywhere in the compoun
Read more

Calculations on pKa and pH

Image
 Hello! I heartily welcome you all to today’s lesson. We are going to look at the last two calculations that pertain to pH, acids and bases today and tomorrow we would commence our discussion on salts to pave way for a discussion on buffers. I hope all the topics so far are making sense? Your feedback would be highly appreciated. Example 8; What is the pH of 0.2 M solution of sodium acetate. The pKa of acetic acid is 1.8 * 10^-5. Solution; We have that the hydrolysis of sodium acetate occurs as follows; CH3CH2COONa(aq) <-> CH3CH2COO^-(aq) + Na^+(aq)    CH3CH2COO^-(aq) + H2O(l) <-> CH3CH2COOH + OH^-(aq) We can see that that the acetate ion acted as a base hence it accepted a proton. We would have to obtain the Kb Kb = 1 * 10^-14/Ka Kb = 1 * 10^-14/1.8 * 10^-5 Kb = 5.6 * 10^-10 Setting up the ICE TABLE, we have that;          CH3CH2COO^-(aq) + H2O(l) <-> CH3CH2COOH + OH^-(aq) I            0.2                                                      0                       
Read more

Bonding in Complex Salts

Image
 Hello! yesterday, we started looking at the complex salt which we called tetramine copper II chloride with the formula; [Cu(NH3)4]Cl2. We did say that this is a complex salt because of the presence to the complex cation [Cu(NH3)4]^2+. I want to state that if we had a complex anion, the salt would also be a complex salt. A typical example of this is; K4 [Fe(CN)6]. The complex ion is  [Fe(CN)6]4- which is anionic and the counter ions in this case are potassium cations. I told you that we will look at the bonding in the complex salt [Cu(NH3)4]Cl2 and why it does not produce simple ions in water. I will try to explain the basics of the concept today as we would still look at coordination chemistry in more detail sometime later.  Now, the complex salt [Cu(NH3)4]Cl2 has both ionic and covalent bonds. The four ammonia molecules are attached to the central copper II ion by a coordinate covalent bond(see the page timeline for an explanation of what a coordinate covalent bond is). We showed the
Read more