Acids, bases and salts in tech

SCIENCE IN ACTION

**Controlling the products of reactions. -Picture from saylordotog.github.iu**

IN this sixth lecture in the Science in Action series, we will be looking into three important entities in which major chemical reactions take place to produce very important substances that both plants and animals as well as unicellular organisms need and interact with for their survival. These are the acids, bases and salts.
All human societies in the world have one commonality and that is they all go through transitions in their development aspirations and agendas like PNG. The master planners are fast thinkers and are problem solvers that make them become the heroes of their land.
I am saddened to see the mess created around this country. Problems in the communities and societies looking at the nation at large are not solved. How long are we going to put up with these reckless living? If you are a person in any position of authority, have you devised any swift action plan that can tow this nation’s problematic people into line to avert creating masses like throwing rubbish everywhere and where ever they please, disturbing communities with drunkeness, spitting buai everywhere, lack of respect for one another, poor academic performing students with attitude problems, unemployment, deteriorating quality of lives in the cities and towns and the list goes on. No sign of improvement yet and this presupposes we should be held accountable.

**Balancing chemical equations. -Picture from courses.lumenlearning.com**

Acids, bases and salts
Acids are solutions that contain much hydrogen ions that makes them become acidic or corrosive. Hydrogen ions carry a positive charge written as H+ ions.
When some of the most common gases like nitrogen dioxide, carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide go to the air, they combine with the water vapor in the presence of the sunlight energy to form acids. These are nitric acid, carbonic acid and sulfuric acid which can fall as acid rain. Because they are acids, they kill plants and animals or cause burns and even kill fish in water bodies such as in lakes. Some area like in the stomach is where weak or dilute hydrochloric acid is found.
There are many acids that come under two different groups called the organic and the inorganic acids. The many different kinds of organic acids are formed from living things that contain the elements hydrogen and carbon called the hydrocarbons. These acids are very weak and are found in living issues. Such acids include carbonic acid, ethanoic acid, propanoic acid, hexanoic acid and so on.
The other group of acids are called inorganic acids and are also known as mineral acids. These acids are very strong acids. Such acids include, hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, nitric acid and so on. Acid making was a pioneer invention produced by alchemists proceeding the production of ammonia in the Haber process. They can burn any material that they are in contact with.
Bases produce hydroxide ions in their solutions. Hydroxide ions carry a negative charge written as OH-. The hydroxide ions produce alkaline solutions. In areas such as the intestines, weak alkaline environment is found. When acids exude from stomach to intestine, a neutral environment is maintained when the acid and base combine to produce water and a salt. Acid produces hydrogen (H+) ions) while the alkali produces hydroxide (OH-) ions. Thus H+ + OH- = H2O. Therefore, water means the environment is neutral with a pH reading of around 7.
Salt is a general name for one of the two products of the chemical reaction between acids and bases. The other product apart from salt is water. For example, when hydrochloric acid combines with the base sodium hydroxide the salt sodium chloride and water are produced as the by-products.
Chemically the reaction takes place in the following manner.

Hydrochloric acid + Sodium hydroxide = Sodium chloride + water, that is;
HCl + NaOH = NaCl + H2O
The equation has to be balanced and in this, case the above equation is balanced. That is the reactants or reagents being HCl and NaOH while the products are NaCl and H2O have equal number of atoms on both sides of the equation. On the left-hand side (reagents) there are two atoms of hydrogen(H), one atom of chlorine (Cl), one atom of sodium (Na) and one atom of oxygen (O). On the right-hand side (products) there are also two atoms of hydrogen, one atom of chlorine, one atom of sodium and one atom of oxygen.
Thus, there are equal number of atoms of the respective elements on each side of the equation. The equation therefore is balanced.
The elements do not appear as pure substances because when they are exposed to the air, they quickly react with oxygen to form compounds. These compounds are also called salts if they can form radicals of acids and bases. Radicals are groups of atoms that are specific to affecting molecules but cannot exist on their own.
Metals can combine with radicals containing oxygen to form salts. Such salts will include, sulphates (SO42-), carbonates (CO32-), nitrates (NO32-) and many more.
My Prayer for PNG today is: “Let fire and rain, give praise to Him, give praise to Him for He is good. He is slow to judge …”

Next week: Types of Chemical Reactions in Science and Technology

Michael Uglo is a science textbook author and lecturer in Avionics, Auto- Piloting and Aircraft Engineering. Please send comments to: [email protected]