Amphoteric Compounds in an Equation

[Mary Koutures 2I]

Hey! Does anyone know how we could tell if a compound is amphoteric or not? Are there common ones we should memorize?

[906011696]

There are a lot of common ones you can generally remember, but you can also look at its chemical propoerties from just the formula itself! For example, with HCO3-, you can look at the formula and see that there is a possibility for the molecule to both give its proton and accept a proton (looking at its negative charge). Therefore, it can act as both an acid and base.

[Maille Flynn 3H]

Amphoteric compounds are compounds that can react as both an acid and a base. A way to identify one is to determine if it can give off a proton (meaning that it has an H), and it must also be able to accept a proton. The most common example is H2O, which can accept a proton and become H3O+, or lose one and become OH-