Understanding Protonation
Moderators: Chem_Mod, Chem_Admin
-
- Posts: 104
- Joined: Tue Feb 23, 2021 12:15 am
Understanding Protonation
Would someone mind explaining to me what the process of protonation is? I completely understand how dissociation works for acids (eg strong acids completely dissociate in water), and I know how to calculate percent protonation, but I'm having trouble picturing how it works. Is it like the opposite of acid dissociation? Any explanations would be super helpful! Thank you!
-
- Posts: 103
- Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2021 5:43 am
- Been upvoted: 1 time
Re: Understanding Protonation
Protonation is just the process of adding a proton to a molecule. So instead of disassociating into separate parts the molecule is gaining a new proton. For example, if you add an H+ to H2O to make it H3O+ that would be protonation.
-
- Posts: 111
- Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2021 5:12 am
Re: Understanding Protonation
Furthermore, to add to the discussion, deprotonation is a term used to classify the loss of hydrogen atoms/protons from a particular substance. We use the term deprotonation to refer to the dissociation of acids.
-
- Posts: 100
- Joined: Wed Feb 17, 2021 12:23 am
Re: Understanding Protonation
Protonation is the adding of a proton to an atom, molecule or ion to form a conjugate acid. For example in the protonation of water by sulfuric acid, the reaction of H2SO4 + H2O becomes H3O+ + HSO4-. In this case H2O was protonated to become H3O+.
-
- Posts: 42
- Joined: Mon Jan 03, 2022 9:10 pm
Re: Understanding Protonation
So I understand that a proton is transferred during protonation, but are electrons ever affected at all?
-
- Posts: 104
- Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2021 6:38 am
Re: Understanding Protonation
Protonation is simply the process of one species transferring a proton to another species. Protonation arises when the intermolecular interactions between water and the acid become strong enough to break the covalent bond between the proton and the acid.
Re: Understanding Protonation
In response to are electrons affected during protonation, I'd say pulling electrons into the picture is a bit confusing, but I like to put it simply as electrons can determine which molecules can be protonated since electrons affect the chemical formulas.
-
- Posts: 100
- Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2021 6:47 am
-
- Posts: 102
- Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2021 7:18 am
Re: Understanding Protonation
Protonation occurs when a proton is added to an atom, molecule, or ion.
Return to “Calculating pH or pOH for Strong & Weak Acids & Bases”
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests