What is neutralization reaction give one example?
Think of it this way: acids taste sour and have a low pH, and bases taste bitter and feel slippery with a high pH. When you mix them in the right amounts, they react vigorously, and the resulting solution is much closer to a neutral pH (around 7), hence the name neutralization. It's basically a fancy way of making a neutral solution from two extreme starting materials. A real-world example is taking antacids (like Tums) for heartburn. Your stomach has excess hydrochloric acid, and the antacid is a mild base (often calcium carbonate). The base reacts with the excess acid in your stomach to neutralize it, producing a salt and water, which relieves the burning sensation. Pretty cool how chemistry applies to everyday life, right?
A neutralization reaction is a fundamental type of chemical reaction where an acid and a base react with each other to produce a salt and water. The key idea here is neutralization—the acid and the base effectively cancel out or neutralize each other's properties (like acidity and basicity). The general form of a neutralization reaction is: $$\text{Acid} + \text{Base} \rightarrow \text{Salt} + \text{Water}$$ The reaction is essentially the combination of hydrogen ions ($\text{H}^+$) from the acid and hydroxide ions ($\text{OH}^-$) from the base to form water ($\text{H}_2\text{O}$). *** Example: A classic example is the reaction between Hydrochloric Acid ($\text{HCl}$) and Sodium Hydroxide ($\text{NaOH}$). $$\text{HCl (Acid)} + \text{NaOH (Base)} \rightarrow \text{NaCl (Salt)} + \text{H}_2\text{O (Water)}$$ * $\text{HCl}$ is a strong acid. * $\text{NaOH}$ is a strong base. * $\text{NaCl}$ is table salt, which is a neutral salt. * $\text{H}_2\text{O}$ is water. This reaction is commonly used in labs during a process called titration to determine the concentration of an unknown acid or base!