remembering acids and bases

[Bailey Wallace 3A]

Hi! Does anyone have any good ways of remembering that acids donate protons and bases accept protons? For some reason I have a hard time remembering this.

[Sunny Xiao 1A]

Hi! I like to think of it this way: HCl is a common acid, and when it reacts with water, it loses its hydrogen, so it loses a proton (HCl + H2O --> H3O+ + Cl-) Bases are just the opposite.

[Samidha Menon 1E]

Personally, whenever I find things I can't remember I like to use letters. AciD has a D and base does not, so aciD Donates. It's a little silly but things like that are personally very helpful to me!

[Bailey Wallace 3A]

Personally, whenever I find things I can't remember I like to use letters. AciD has a D and base does not, so aciD Donates. It's a little silly but things like that are personally very helpful to me!

Thanks! This is really helpful

[Wendy Zhao 1I]

I remember by remembering common acids like HCl and H2SO4 that start with H+ (which is a proton). And base is the opposite.

[Luke Hatch 1G]

First of all, its important to remember bronsted-Lowry acids and lewis acids are defined in the opposite way. Bronsted-Lowry acids donate protons and lewis acids accept electrons. The opposite is true for bases; bronstead-Lowry bases accept protons and lewis bases donate electrons. I think of it as a chart:

Acid Base
Bronstead-Lowry donate H+ accept H+

Lewis accept e- donate e-

It takes a little bit of studying but it's a relatively easy chart to remember. If all else fails though, I just remember the opposite nature of Bronsted-Lowry and Lewis and go by the fact that Lewis Acid Accepts. Of all four options, its easiest for me to remember "acid accepts." after remembering that lewis "acids accept", you know that lewis bases have to donate, and also because Bronsted-Lowry is the opposite Bronsted-Lowry acids donate H+. It sounds kind of convoluted though, so just remembering the chart has been the most useful to me. Hope this Helps

[905744270]

Here's a cool tool that helps you memorize strong acids:

H2SO4, HI, HBr, HNO3, HCl, HClO4
SO I BRought NO CLean CLothes