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Chapter 6: Acidity and Basicity

Ch 1 contents

Structural Factors affecting Acidity : Charge of the ATOM the H is attached to

Impact : large.... ΔpKa of the order of 15 units e.g. consider H2O (pKa = 14) vs H3O+ (pKa = 0), or NH3 (pKa = 35) vs NH4+ (pKa = 10)

The charge effect is quite large, and is easier to spot (assuming the charges are assigned), best considered when the atom the H is attached to is the same.

ACIDITY : Look for factors that stabilise the conjugate base...we do this by simply removing the H+:

 

 


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© Dr. Ian Hunt, Department of Chemistry University of Calgary