12.17

[sofiakavanaugh]

"State if the oxides are acidic, basic, or amphoteric:"
a) BaO
b) SO3
c) As2O3
d) Bi2O3

I am getting a little lost in the logic here... Usually when I look at a rxn to identify which will be the acid or base I look to see if one has a Hydrogen out in front, like HCl or H2SO4, and that look like they will donate that proton, and then look to see which compound would logically accept that proton. For these ones, none of them have hydrogen, so the Bronsted definitions of acids and bases wouldn't really work. Are we talking about Lewis Acids and Bases then? How do we know when we are talking about one versus the other if it does not specify it or would that even matter?

Thanks!

[sofiakavanaugh]

Just realized I posted this in the wrong section but I am not sure how to move it... sorry!!

[SitharaMenon2B]

I don't think it would work to only consider the Bronsted definitions, but for the Lewis definition, you could draw out the lewis structure of each and see if it can accept a lone pair of electrons (which would make it a Lewis acid) or if it can donate a lone pair of electrons (which would make it a Lewis base).

[Kelly Kiremidjian 1C]

I had trouble with this question too. Reading page 468-469 in the textbook really helped me. It says at the end of section 12.3:

metals form basic oxides, nonmetals form acidic oxides, and the elements on a diagonal line from beryllium to polonium and several d-block metals form amphoteric oxides.

hope this helps you