Why does neutralization occur?

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Why does neutralization occur?

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Answer 1 · 2014-05-14T23:17:42

A neutralization reaction is very much like a double replacement reaction. However, in a neutralization reaction, the reactants are always an acid and a base and the products are always a salt and water.

The basic reaction for a double replacement react takes the following format:

$A B + C D \to C B + A D$ $AB + CD -> CB + AD$

We will look at an example as Sulfuric Acid and Potassium Hydroxide neutralize each other in the following reaction:

$H_{2} S O_{4} + 2 K O H \to K_{2} S O_{4} + 2 H_{2} O$ $H_2SO_4 + 2KOH -> K_2SO_4 + 2H_2O$

In a neutralization reaction between an acid and a base, the typical outcome is a salt formed by the positive ion from the base and the negative ion from the acid. In this case, the positive potassium ion ( $K^{+}$ $K^+$ ) and the polyatomic sulfate ( $S O_{4}$ $SO_4$ ) together form the salt $K_{2} S O_{4}$ $K_2SO_4$ .

The positive hydrogen ( $H^{+}$ $H^+$ ) from the acid and the negative hydroxide ion ( $O H^{-}$ $OH^-$ ) from the base form the water molecule $H O H$ $HOH$ or $H_{2} O$ $H_2O$ .

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Why does neutralization occur?

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