AaP - Basic Chemistry - Wise

Basic Chemistry

• Acid/Base Chemistry
o Acids are proton donors. They release hydrogen into a solution.
o Acids are hydrogen donors. They release protons into a solution.
o Bases are hydrogen acceptors.
o Bases are proton acceptors.
o as the pH increases, a substance becomes more basic

• pH scale
o the pH scale is an inverse log scale
- pH is a measure of the hydrogen ion concentration
- the greater the pH, the fewer H+
- the Richter and decibel scales are also log scales
o each whole number represents the number of hydrogen ions divided by 10 (H+ / 10)
- for example…a substance with a pH of 1 has 10x more H+ than pH 2
- for example…pH 1 has 100x more H+ than pH 3
- for example… a substance with a pH of 12 has a H+ concentration that is 100x that of a substance with a pH of 14
- pH 0 = 1 [H+]
- pH 1 =1 / 10 [H+]
- pH 2 = 1 / 100[H+]
- pH 5 = 1 / 100000[H+]
- pH 14 = 1 / 100000000000000[H+]
- pH of saliva = 6.5
- pH of blood = 7.4
- most foods we eat are neutral or acidic. Why? Stomach is acidic… thus the food is in balance with stomach physiology. Basic substances often have an unpleasant taste.

• enzymes
o enzymes lower the activation energy of a reaction

• organic compounds
o protein
o carbohydrates
o lipids
o nucleic acids (DNA, RNA, ATP…)