16.6 Acidity and Basicity of Salts | General Chemistry

Chad provides a comprehensive lesson on the acidity and basicity of salts. Salts (aka ionic compounds) are composed of cations and anions. Cations, being positively charged, tend to act as Lewis acids (electron acceptors), whereas anions, being negatively charged, tend to act as Lewis bases. Knowing the strong acids and bases will be key to remembering which cations are not acidic and which anions are not basic. Once cations and anions are examined for acidity and basicity respectively, it can be determined whether or not a salt is acidic, basic, or neutral. The lesson is concluded by a demonstration of how to calculate the pH of a basic salt (from the Ka of the anion's conjugate acid) or an acidic salt (from the Kb of the cation's conjugate base).

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00:00 Lesson Introduction
00:27 Cations as Acids, Anions as Bases
03:22 Negligible Anions
06:10 Negligible Cations
09:19 How to Classify Salts as Acidic, Basic, or Neutral
13:42 Calculating the pH of Basic Salts
19:12 Calculating the pH of Acidic Salts

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