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Conjugate (acid-base theory)

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A conjugate acid is a chemical compound that is formed when an acid gives a proton (H) to a base.

A conjugate base is what remains after an acid has donated a proton during a chemical reaction.

In other words, a conjugate acid is a base with a hydrogen ion added to it, as it loses a hydrogen ion in the reverse reaction, and a conjugate base is a substance formed by the removal of a proton from an acid, as it can gain a hydrogen ion in the reverse reaction.

Because some acids can give multiple protons, the conjugate base of an acid may itself be acidic.

In summary, this interaction can be represented as the following chemical reaction:

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Johannes Nicolaus Brønsted and Martin Lowry introduced the Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory, which says that any compound that can give a proton to another compound is an acid, and the compound that receives the proton is a base. (A proton is a subatomic particle with a positive electrical charge in the nucleus of an atom. It is represented by the symbol H because it has the nucleus of a hydrogen atom, that is, a hydrogen cation.)

A cation can be a conjugate acid, and an anion can be a conjugate base, depending on which substance is involved and which acid–base theory is used. The simplest anion which can be a conjugate base is the free electron in a solution whose conjugate acid is the atomic hydrogen.

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