Common examples include hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, citric acid and ethanoic acid (vinegar/acetic acid). Bases are a group of substances that neutralise acids. Soluble bases are called alkalis. Salts are odourless and have a salty taste, and many are soluble in water.

If we mix equal amounts of an acid and a base then two chemicals essentially cancel out each other and produce salt and water. Mixing equal amounts of a strong acid with strong base results in a neutral solution whose pH value remains 7 and this type of reactions are known as neutralization reactions.

When acid and base solutions react, they produce water and a neutral ionic compound called a salt. The reaction is called a neutralization reaction.

neutralization reaction

An acid is a substance that donates protons (in the Brønsted-Lowry definition) or accepts a pair of valence electrons to form a bond (in the Lewis definition). A base is a substance that can accept protons or donate a pair of valence electrons to form a bond. Bases can be thought of as the chemical opposite of acids.

A substance is called base if its aqueous solution tastes bitter, turns red litmus blue or neutralizes acids. Salt is a neutral substance whose aqueous solution does not affect litmus. Further, Liebig proposed that acids are compounds which contain hydrogen that can be replaced by metals.

Bases contain a huge amount of negative ions. They are of bitter taste and are very slippery. Salt is formed when acid and base both are mixed together and are neutralized. The negative ions form water whereas the positive ions form salt.

The cation will be a spectator. Thus the basic salts will be composed of a spectator ion like sodium, Na+, potassium, K+ or something like that and an anion that is the conjugate base of the acid. They can be identified as they are the same compound as the weak acid but they are “missing” a H+.

It is soluble in water. Hence from this we can conclude that reaction is occurring between strong base and weak acid due to which the product formed is salt which is basic in nature i.e. Na2CO3 is basic salt.

Sodium carbonate (also known as washing soda or soda ash), Na2CO3, is a sodium salt of carbonic acid and is a fairly strong, non-volatile base.

Sodium carbonate decahydrate

Ammonium chloride (chemical formula NH4Cl) is an acidic salt since it is a salt of a strong acid, namely hydrochloric acid, and a weak base, namely ammonium hydroxide.

Ammonium chloride

Ammonium chloride, also known as Sal ammoniac, is a compound of ammonia (NH3) and chlorine (Cl). It is denoted by the symbol NH4Cl and is in solid crystalline form in nature. This compound is a water-soluble salt of ammonia, and aqueous ammonium chloride is slightly acidic.

Potassium chloride (KCl) acts as a source of chloride ions for the electrode. The advantage of using KCl for this purpose is that it is pH-neutral. Typically, KCl solutions of concentrations ranging from 3 molar to saturated are used in pH meters.

Sodium nitrite