Amphiprotic or Amphoteric (1 Viewer)

[mynameisgone]

whats the difference. last years examiner's comments said students didnt know the difference, but theres no way to find out. i think amphoteric refers to the whole substance ie water can act as an acid or base, and amphiprotic is used wen refering to the proton chmeistry of the substance, ie water is amphiprotic because it can lose or gain protons...
any other ideas......

 

[poodoorfan]

i have never heard fo amphoteric so i dont think it's anything to worry about

 

[serge]

i have never heard fo amphoteric so i dont think it's anything to worry about

oh, you should start worrying...
(its part of the oxides dotpoint)

 

[xvelidras]

Amphoteric: referring to 'acidic/basic/amphoteric oxides dot point' substance can react with both acid/base

Amphiprotic: substance may be a proton donor or proton acceptor, depending on the conditions imposed.

Remember that an acid/base reaction does not have to involve proton transfer. to be safe in HSC simply associate amphoteric with oxides and amphiprotic with lowry-bronsted acids/bases

 

[Abtari]

Remember that an acid/base reaction does not have to involve proton transfer.

unless there are acid/base reactions that AREN'T neutralisation reactions,

i disagree with what u have said.

 

[xvelidras]

are you saying you can't have lewis acid-base reactions?

 

[taxman]

are you saying you can't have lewis acid-base reactions?

For the purposes of the HSC, ALL acid-base reactions involve proton transfer. Lewis reactions are off syllabus and will not be tested in the HSC.

Feel free to argue this point at 1:00 tomorrow

 

[serge]

For the purposes of the HSC, ALL acid-base reactions involve proton transfer. Lewis reactions are off syllabus and will not be tested in the HSC.

Feel free to argue this point at 1:00 tomorrow

good point, in our context only bronsted-lowry reactions matter

 

[Ghost1788]

oh, you should start worrying...
(its part of the oxides dotpoint)

lol ... we are doomed

 

[Dumsum]

Amphoteric was in the prelim course I thought. So it could potentially show up. My teacher explained it to us like this:

Amphoteric: able to neutralise both an acid and a base
Amphiprotic: able to act as a Bronsted-Lowry acid (proton donor) and a Bronsted-Lowry base (proton acceptor).

He also mentioned how "amphiprotic" was just a subset of "amphoteric."

 

[nit]

Amphoteric: able to act as an acid or base - this encompasses the Arrhenius, Lowry-Bronsted and Lewis definitions of the two.

Amphiprotic: Able to act as an acid or base in the Lowry-Bronsted sense - ie able to donate or accept a proton. Amphiprotic substances thus form a small subset of amphoteric substances.

 

[treelovinhippie]

For the purposes of the HSC, ALL acid-base reactions involve proton transfer. Lewis reactions are off syllabus and will not be tested in the HSC.

Feel free to argue this point at 1:00 tomorrow

I wish I could... I'll be doing software

 

[rnitya_25]

Amphoteric: able to act as an acid or base - this encompasses the Arrhenius, Lowry-Bronsted and Lewis definitions of the two.

Amphiprotic: Able to act as an acid or base in the Lowry-Bronsted sense - ie able to donate or accept a proton. Amphiprotic substances thus form a small subset of amphoteric substances.

dude they aren't the same thing.

 

[mynameisgone]

nah.. if they ask to define amphiprotic, and u reply can act as a acid or a bse they will mark it wrong, as the correct answer is able to act as a proton donor and acceptor.

 

[rnitya_25]

proton donor:acid; proton acceptor:base....same thing. just in more technical words.

by the way.....my record 900th post

 

[Slidey]

dude they aren't the same thing.

No, they aren't. But if you'd read nit's reply thoroughly, you'd see that he never said they are. Ignoring that nit is a brilliant chemist, he is also quite correct.