Home > Organic Chemistry > Main Characterstics or Lewis/Bronsted Definition

Is #"NH"_4^(+)# an acid or a base?

Answer 1

Generally speaking, an acid donates a proton by taking up two electrons. For example:

#"NH"_4^(+)(aq) + "H"_2"O"(l) rightleftharpoons "NH"_3(aq) + "H"_3"O"^(+)(aq)#

Here:

The acid is ammonium, which gives water its proton (Bronsted-Lowry definition) by taking two electrons from the oxygen in the water (Lewis definition).

As the base, water donates two electrons from oxygen (Lewis definition) in exchange for one proton from ammonium (Bronsted-Lowry definition).

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Answer 2

Nicholas Antonuccio

"NH"_4^(+) is an acidic ion.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.