Determining if salts are acidic, basic, or neutral

[Ella Ashley 1D]

How can you determine whether a salt is acidic, basic, or neutral? I was a little confused on question 6 on the achieve which asked us about this.

[Andy Sun 2I]

If a salt contains a cation (+) of a strong base and the anion (-) of a weak acid, then the salt is basic. If the salt contains the cation (+) of a weak base and the anion (-) of a strong acid, then the salt is acidic. If the salt is composed of an anion and cation both from a strong or weak acid and base, then the salt is considered neutral. This is much easier when you are familiar with common strong acids and bases.

[Jennifer Liu 2A]

The best case scenario would probably be trying to memorize the 7 strong acids and a few of the strong bases. The book also indicates that the metals in Group 1 and Group 2 cations don't affect pH (because they would make strong bases), so if it's something like CsCl (HCl is a strong acid; Cs is a Group 1 element [which makes it a strong base]), the salt would be neutral. Mg technically makes the solution slightly acidic, but I believe that Professor said that because the book specified that Group 1/Group 2 metals will not affect pH, you can ignore this for Chem 14B.
Andy already explained this well enough, but as a shortcut way to think about it: if the cation (+) / metal is for a weak base then the salt is acidic, and if the anion (-) / nonmetal is for a weak acid, then the salt is basic :))

[Sophia Spallone 1A]

How can you determine whether a salt is acidic, basic, or neutral? I was a little confused on question 6 on the achieve which asked us about this.

When determining if a salt is acidic, basic, or neutral, you first need to break up the salt into an anion and a cation. Then, determine if each cation and anion is a derived from a strong acid, a weak acid, a weak base, or a strong base. .

If the anion is derived from a weak acid and the cation is derived from a strong base, the salt is basic.
If the anion is derived from a strong acid and the cation is derived from a weak base, the salt is acidic.
If the anion is derived from a strong acid and the cation is derived from a strong base, the salt is neutral.

[Hayden Kim 1G]

First, you should probably memorize the strong acids and bases since you will need to refer to them for determining the salt as acidic, basic, or neutral. If the cation of the salt then is from a weak base and the anion is from a strong acid then the salt is acidic while if the cation is from a strong base and the anion is from a weak acid then its basic. If they are both from a strong or weak acid/base then its neutral.

[andrew_bishay_1D]

You need to break the salt down into cation and anion and then look to see if they are part of any weak or strong acid or bases. If the anion is from a weak acid, it can act as a base because it is a conjugate base to the weak acid, meaning it has a tendency to accept protons, which makes the solution more basic. Alternatively, if the cation is from a weak base, it is a conjugate acid to the weak base, meaning it has the tendency to donate protons, which will make the solution more acidic.

[Samuel Vansomphone 1H]

First, break down the salt into a cation and an anion.
Next, determine whether or not the cation and anion are from a strong acid/base or weak acid/base.

- If formed from a strong base and a weak acid, the salt is basic
- If formed from a weak base and a strong acid, the salt is acidic
- If formed from a strong base a strong acid, the salt is neutral

[Matthew Do 2G]

To determine whether a salt is acidic, basic or neutral, you must analyze the component ions of the salt itself. If a salt contains a cation from a strong base and an anion from a weak acid , the resulting salt should be basic. If a salt contains an anion from a strong acid and a cation from a weak base, it will be acidic. If both anion and cation come from strong acids and strong bases, the salt will be neutral. If both cation and anion come from weak acid and weak base, it could be neutral, acidic, or basic, depending on the relative strengths of the conjugate acid/base. I hope this helps.

Here is a table:

Strong Acid/Strong Base: neutral
Strong Acid/ Weak base: acidic
weak Acid/ Strong Base: basic
weak acid/ weak base : variable, depending on Ka of acid and Kb of base. For example: Ka>Kb, it will be acidic, Kb>Ka: it will be basic, Ka=Kb: it will be neutral.

[meenakshi nair 1F]

To determine whether a salt is acidic, basic, or neutral, break the salt down into its cation and anion components. If the salt has a cation from a weak base and an anion from a strong acid, the result will be an acidic salt. If it has a cation from a strong base and an anion from a weak acid, the resulting salt will be basic. If both the cation and anion are from a strong acid or base, the salt will be neutral.