chem1 virtual textbook
a reference text for General Chemistry
Stephen Lower
Simon Fraser University
Acids and bases touch upon virtually all areas of chemistry, biochemistry, and physiology. This set of lessons will get you started by presenting the underlying concepts in a systematic way. Aside from the section on pH which presumes an elementary knowledge of logarithms, there is no math here. The subject of acid-base equilibrium calculations is not covered in this lesson; the only Virtual Textbook chapter presently available on this topic is a somewhat advanced one in PDF format. This, together with an earlier PDF document that covers much of the material in this lesson can be found here.
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To access the desired page, click one of the seven lesson titles immediately below; you can also go directly to any sub-section within a lesson by clicking on a smaller heading.
1- Introduction: What is an acid? What is a base?
2- Aqueous solutions: pH and titration
3- Proton donors and acceptors
This is the most important lesson in this unit. If you master it, you are almost guaranteed to pass Chemistry!
4- Competing for the proton: acid-base reactions
How to predict the direction of an acid-base reaction. Spend some time here, and your reward will be a far better understanding of acid-base chemistry.
5- Electron pairs: Lewis acids and bases
Most elementary courses will cover only the first two topics of this section.
It's important to recognize the structural features that make a substance act as an acid or a base.
7- Gallery of acids and bases you should know
The "descriptive" chemistry covered here usually gets squeezed out of modern chemistry courses, but it's interesting stuff and well worth knowing.