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Chemistry Forums for Students => Undergraduate General Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: mnuslt on April 15, 2005, 01:16:49 AM

Title: determining the acidity or basicity of a salt solution
Post by: mnuslt on April 15, 2005, 01:16:49 AM

How to you determine if SnCl2 or KNO for example is a acidic or a basic solution? without having to memorized all the strong and weak acids and bases. ???

Title: Re:determining the acidity or basicity of a salt solution
Post by: Borek on April 15, 2005, 04:52:44 AM

There are areas in chemistry where memory is a key to succes ;)

Sn is a heavy metal. Heavy metal hydroxides are not soluble (or weakly soluble at best, unless they are amphoteric). Hydrochloric acid is very strong. That's the key to proper answer.

KON - I suppose you meant KNO3. If so, both KOH and HNO3 are strong base/acid - and the solution will have similar properties as, say, NaCl. If it was KNO2 then HNO2 is a weak acid and you have exactly opposite situation when compered with the first question.