Neutral Salts

[IreneGi2I]

Hi, I'm wondering how we can determine if a salt is neutral.

I can understand how we determine acidic/basic salt, but I'm a little confused with how I can figure out the given salt is neutral (for example, KBr).

[Sabine Salvucci 2E]

Hello! This is how I like to determine it. I compare the strengths of the acids and bases that the anions and cations come from. If both are strong, the strengths cancels out and the salt is neutral. In the case of KBr, since both KOH and HBr are strong, the strengths cancel out and the salt is neutral. Hope this helps!

[Hazelle Gunawan 3G]

Agreed with the above answer! I'd also like to add from an answer I saw elsewhere that if you have a weak acid and a weak base, they would also likely form a neutral salt.

[Erika Sosa-Cruz 1J]

Just like the examples above, you would just need to compare the strength of the acids and bases to determine if the salt is neutral.

[Sophia Kalanski 1A]

if the anion of the salt comes from a strong base and the cation comes from a strong acid, they cancel out and have no effect on the pH and therefore they are neutral

[Shrinidhy Srinivas 3L]

The best way to determine it in my opinion is to play a game of mix and match as the person above said. If you have LiCl, you would make each ion an acid/base. LiOH is a strong base and HCl is a strong acid. As such, the salt would cancel out and the solution would have a pH of 7. I hope this helps!

[Hasan Mirza 3F]

As long as the anion is from a strong acid, and the cation is from a strong base, the salt will be neutral.

[rhettfarmer-3H]

How I like to think of neutral charts is to think of the things that made the salt so I work backward. SO for example, NaCl is a neutral salt. How would I know if it's neutral I'm gonna make the acid and the base that makes the salt. Hence, we have a strong base of NaOH and a strong HCL. How do I know which was which? Well, Na is a metal so it has to be the base and Cl is halogen so its an acid so we put them w H and OH and then we look at our strong acid/base chart. and they are both strong so they neutralize to make a neutral salt.