CHEMISTRY COMMUNITY

Will salt make a solution more acidic or basic?

It depends what molecules the salt breaks up into, depending on what other reactants are present in the chemical equation. For example, dissolving the salt of strong base and strong acid makes a neutral solution, salt of strong base and weak acid makes a basic solution, and lastly, a salt of weak base and a strong acid creates an acidic solution.

It depends on the salt- certain salts tend to make water more acidic, some make it more alkaline, and some- like table salt- don’t change the pH of water at all because they don’t react with the water to create hydronium or hydroxide ions

If you are referring to salt, as in table salt, the molecular formula is NaCl. As such, it is an ionic compound that is soluble in water. Thus, it does not affect the pH of a solution, and therefore cannot impact how acidic or basic a solution is.

It depends on the salt. The salt will only affect the pH of the water if the dissociated ions are unstable and therefore react with the water. The product of the dissociation can either pull a H atom off of a water molecule, turning into -OH, or add a H atom, making it H3O+.

It depends on the salt you have. For example, NaCl will not affect the pH of water because it is a neutral salt. However, NH4Cl will lower the pH of water because NH4+ make water acidic.