Amphoteric Compounds

[Chelsea Culi 3F]

Will we be going more in depth with amphoteric compounds because I am kind of confused on how they are both basic and acidic in character.

[Vance Liu]

Amphoteric compounds can react with either acids or bases, thus they have either acidic or basic character. Metal oxides are common amphoteric compounds (metal ion + oxygen) and can react with bases (cation + OH-) or acids (H+ + anion).

[Elena Chan 2L]

Amphoteric compounds can act as "double agents" since they show both acidic and basic characteristics. If you're referring to the acidic capabilities of an amphoteric compound, it is able to donate a proton through a hydrogen ion or accepting electrons from hydroxide ions in basic solutions. However, you can also talk about the basic properties of an amphoteric compound since it can accept a proton through a hydrogen ion when it reacts in an acidic solution. Knowing that BeO, Al2O3, Ga2O3, SnO2, Sb2O5, PbO2 (similar to the band of metalloids) are amphoteric in AQUEOUS solutions may help if you're still confused. Hope this helps!

[Anne Hogue 2J]

Hi! An easy way to remember if something is amphoteric is by checking that it has both a hydrogen and a negative charge. For example, in Achieve homework week 10, it asked which one was amphoteric and the answer was H2PO4-.

[Mari Masunaga 1G]

Hi! I'm not sure if we will be going more into depth on amphoteric compounds, however an example that helps me to understand them is water. H2O is amphoteric because it can either lose a proton to become OH- (base) or it can gain a proton to become H3O+ (acid). Hope this helps.