Base (chemistry)

In chemistry, bases are substances that, in aqueous solution, release hydroxide (OH−) ions, are slippery to the touch, can taste bitter if an alkali, change the color of indicators (e.g., turn red litmus paper blue), react with acids to form salts, promote certain chemical reactions (base catalysis), accept protons from any proton donor or contain completely or partially displaceable OH− ions. Examples of bases are the hydroxides of the alkali metals and the alkaline earth metals (NaOH, Ca(OH)2, etc.—see alkali hydroxide and alkaline earth hydroxide). In water, by altering the autoionization equilibrium, bases yield solutions in which the hydrogen ion activity is lower than it is in pure water, i.e., the water has a pH higher than 7.0 at standard conditions. A soluble base is called an alkali if it contains and releases OH− ions quantitatively. However, it is important to realize that basicity is not the same as alkalinity. Metal oxides, hydroxides, and especially alkoxides are basic, and conjugate bases of weak acids are weak bases. Bases can be thought of as the chemical opposite of acids. However, some strong acids are able to act as bases. Bases and acids are seen as opposites because the effect of an acid is to increase the hydronium (H3O+) concentration in water, whereas bases reduce this concentration. A reaction between an acid and a base is called neutralization. In a neutralization reaction, an aqueous solution of a base reacts with an aqueous solution of an acid to produce a solution of water and salt in which the salt separates into its component ions. If the aqueous solution is saturated with a given salt solute, any additional such salt precipitates out of the solution. For a substance to be classified as an Arrhenius base, it must produce hydroxide ions in an aqueous solution. Arrhenius believed that in order to do so, the base must contain hydroxide in the formula. This makes the Arrhenius model limited, as it cannot explain the basic properties of aqueous solutions of ammonia (NH3) or its organic derivatives (amines). There are also bases that do not contain a hydroxide ion but nevertheless react with water, resulting in an increase in the concentration of the hydroxide ion. An example of this is the reaction between ammonia and water to produce ammonium and hydroxide. In this reaction ammonia is the base because it accepts a proton from the water molecule. Ammonia and other bases similar to it usually have the ability to form a bond with a proton due to the unshared pair of electrons that they possess. In the more general Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory, a base is a substance that can accept hydrogen cations (H+)—otherwise known as protons. In the Lewis model, a base is an electron pair donor.