Textbook 6A.17

[Shannon Asay 1C]

State whether the following oxides are acidic, basic, or amphoteric: (a) BaO; (b) SO3; (c) As2O3; (d) Bi2O3.

How do we tell when it's amphoteric or not?

[005391550]

most amphoteric oxides align with the metalloid diagonal. For example c and d are amphoteric because As and Bi are metalloids

[Malik Oda 1F]

Amphoteric simply means that the ion is able to act as both an acid and a base.

[Ashley Kao 1H]

How would we know that SO3 is acidic? Couldn't it be amphoteric as well?

[IreneGi2I]

How would we know that SO3 is acidic? Couldn't it be amphoteric as well?

Generally, metal oxides (Group 1 and Group 2) are basic, and nonmetal oxides (right-hand side of periodic table) are acidic. Also, metalloid oxides tend to be amphoteric.

Since SO3 has S atom, which is nonmetal, we can determine it is acidic. Hope this helps!