1. Unit 5: Acid-Base Calculations Lesson 5: Hydrolysis

2. Hydrolysis
The hydrolysis of a salt is a reaction between water and the cation and/or anion in that salt, so as to produce an acidic or basic solution.
Note: All salts are considered to be 100% ionized in water.
5 min

3. Spectator Ions in Hydrolysis
The conjugates of strong acids and bases do not undergo hydrolysis and are thus spectator ions in this type of reaction.
They are (memorize these!):
- The cations of the alkali metals and alkaline earth metals.
- The first five anions found at the top right of the “Relative Strengths” table.

4. Predicting a Hydrolysis Reaction:
Determine the ions produced by dissociation.
Discard spectators.
Determine whether each remaining ion will act as an acid or a base (use Ka and Kb values if needed).

5. Brain Break! Climb the ladders by changing one letter at a time to get from one word to the other.

6. Examples
Determine whether each solution will be acidic, basic, or neutral:
NaCl
NH4Cl
NaHC2O4
NH4NO2

7. Your Turn:
Will a solution of Al(H2O)5(OH)(NO3)2 be acidic, basic, or neutral?

8. Homework:
Pg. 148 #69 (a, c, e, etc.)