Acid

An acid (from Latin acidus, meaning sour or tart) is a chemical compound generally defined by its reactions with complementary chemicals, designated bases (see Acid-base reaction theories). An acid tends to give a proton and can be represented by the generic formula AH. In water, there is the following reaction:

There is a distinction between weak acids and strong acids. For a strong acid, no AH remains in solution:

That is why the acidity constant is only defined for weak acids:

Some of the stronger acids include the hydrohalic acids - HCl, HBr, and HI - and the oxyacids, which tend to contain central atoms in high oxidation states surrounded by oxygen - including HNO₃, H₂SO₄, HClO₄.

Acidity is typically measured using the pH scale.

Acidic (chemistry), the opposite to basic, reacting with basics to form salts. Acidic (geology), of rock: containing more than 65% of silica.

Table of contents

1 Characteristics 2 Acids in Food 3 Different Definitions of Acid/Base 4 Acid number 5 Other meanings

Characteristics

Acids are generally:

• Taste: sour when dissolved in water
• Touch: strong acids have a stinging feeling
• Reactivity: acids react violently with many metals
• Electrical Conductivity: acids are electrolytes

Acids in Food

• citric acid: found in citrus fruits
• lactic acid: found in dairy products such as yogurt and sour milk
• carbonic acid: found in carbonated beverages
• acetic acid: found in vinegar

Different Definitions of Acid/Base

The word acid comes from the Latin acidus meaning sour. Chemically though the term acid has a more specific meaning.

The Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius defined an acid to be a substance that gave up hydrogen ions (H+) when dissolved in water, while bases are substances that give up hydroxide ions (OH-). Notice that this definition limits acids and bases to substances that can dissolve in water. Later on, Bronsted and Lowry defined an acid to be a proton donor and a base to be a proton acceptor. In this definition, even substances that are insoluble in water can be acids and bases. The most general definition of acids and bases is the Lewis definition. A Lewis acid is an electron acceptor, while a Lewis base is an electron donor. Acid/base systems are different from redox reactions in that there is no change in oxidation state.

Acid number

This is used to quantify oxidation. It is the quantity of base, expressed in milligrams of potassium hydroxide, that is required to neutralize the acidic constituents in 1 g of sample.

AN = (V_eq-b_eq)×N×56.1/W_oil ).

V_eq is the amount of titrant (ml) consumed by crude oil sample and 1ml spiking solution at the equivalent point, and b_eqbeq is the amount of titrant (ml) consumed by 1ml spiking solution at the equivalent point.

The molarity concentration of titrant (N) is calculated as such: N = 1000×W_KHP/(204.23×V_eq).

In which, W_KHP is the amount (g) of KHP in 50ml of KHP standard solution, and Veq is the amount of titrant (ml) consumed by 50ml KHP standard solution at the equivalent point.

Acid number (mgKO/g oil) for biodiesel is prefered to be lower than 3.

Other meanings

• "Acid" is also a slang word referring to LSD.
• "Acid" is also the sound that a Roland TB-303 music synthesizer makes, and is where the terms Acid Jazz and Acid House originate. A very important term in electronic music, often confused with the LSD meaning.
• ACID is an acronym that expands to four essential properties of a database management system.