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Ch.16 - Acid-Base Equilibria

Chapter 16, Problem 9

Each of the three molecules shown here contains an OH group, but one molecule acts as a base, one as an acid, and the third is neither acid nor base. (c) Which one is neither acidic nor basic?

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Hello everyone today. We are being given the following problem. The following molecules all contained in O. H. Group or hydroxyl group. One is a base, another is an acid and alas is neither identify the acid. So we have a key of what each of these. Red spheres, gray spheres, blue spheres and white spheres mean. And so we're gonna go ahead and go in and translate these. So for this first product here we'll call this a for a looks like we have a carbon that's attached to three hydrogen. And then we have that carbon attached to another carbon which is what looks like attached to and oxygen and hydrogen or an O. H. Group. And then that last carbon is attached to two other hydrogen. And so we see here that this is representative of ethanol which is neither an acid or a base. And so we move on. So for the second one we'll call this B. We have a hydrogen that's bonded to a nitrogen and that nitrogen is bonded to another hydrogen nitrogen. And that nitrogen is bonded to an oxygen which is bonded to an O. H. Group. And this is hydroxyl. I mean so hydroxy I mean which is a base. And so that must make this last one an asset. So we have three hydrogen is connected to a carbon that is bonded to another carbon. And that center carbon is bonded to an oxygen and an O. H. Group. And this is actually a car box silica group here but this makes acetic acid and so therefore this last product here or product C. is going to be our asset. I hope this helped, and until next time.