Expanding Equations [ENDORSED]

[Mia Navarro 1D]

How do you know when to or not to separate the H from the molecule when completely expanding an acid-base chemical equation?
(I was not sure under what topic to ask this question.)

[Austin Ho 1E]

I'm not quite sure what you mean? Do you mean how an acid, such as HCl(aq), in water, is dissociated to H+(aq) and Cl-(aq)? Generally you don't have to write this unless it specifies a net ionic reaction or something. For a proton transfer equation, like for HCl(aq), you'd just write:

HCl(aq) + H2O(l) -> H3O+(aq) + Cl-(aq)

[Madelyn Gehrich 1E]

A Bronsted acid is a proton donor, thus the acid in the acid-base reaction would lose its H+ and generally donate it to the water molecule in the reaction to produce a hydronium ion and some other ionic compound in the products. Once you identify the Bronsted acid and base in a reaction (which would donate a proton), you can tell whether or not a compound will lose its H.