What is a conjugate acid Give an example.
Answers
A conjugate acid is the product that is different from a base by one proton. Examples of conjugate acids include water (base) reacting with an acid to form the hydronium ion (conjugate acid), and ammonia (base) reacting with an acid to form the ammonium ion (conjugate acid).
Conjugate acids are a type of acid that gains a proton in solution. These acids will gain a proton in response to a base that has happily accepted a proton. This fits perfectly into the family lineage of acids because conjugate acids describe what a Bronsted-Lowry acid is.conjugate acid is the product that is different from a base by one proton.Examples of conjugate acids include water (base) reacting with an acid to form the hydronium ion (conjugate acid), andammonia (base) reacting with an acid to form the ammonium ion (conjugate acidconjugate acid of a base results when the base accepts a proton.
Consider ammonia reacting with water to form an equilibrium with ammonium ions and hydroxide ions:
NH3 (aq) + H2O (l) ⇌ NH4+ (aq) + OH- (aq)
Ammonium, NH4+, acts as a conjugate acid to ammonia, NH3.
Conjugate acids are useful when considering acid-base equilibrium. For instance, the base dissociation constant, Kb, equals the concentration of hydroxide times the concentration of conjugate acid, divided by the concentration of reactant base at equilibrium,
For our reaction, Kb = [OH-][NH4+} / [NH3]