What is the difference between acids and bases when it comes to high school chemistry?
Acids are substances which produce hydrogen ions in solution while bases are substances which produce hydroxide ions in solution. An acid is a proton (hydrogen ion) donor while a base is a proton (hydrogen ion) acceptor. An acid is an electron pair acceptor while a base is an electron pair donor. Sources: http://www.chemguide.co.uk/physical/acidbaseeqia/theories.
Acids cause solutions to have extra hydrogen ions (H+), bases cause it to have extra hydroxide ions (OH-). In just regular water, there are always a few broken water molecules floating around, hydrogens missing their electron (H+) and hydrogen-oxygen groups with an extra electron (OH-). Normally these exist in equal amounts, with a concentration each of 10-7 moles per liter. Take -log10(H+) concentration, and you get pH, so neutral water has a pH of 7. Add an acid to water, such as hydrochloric acid (HCl) to the water, and there will be a surplus of H+ ions, like maybe 100 times as many as before, or 10-5 moles per liter, so now the solution has a pH of 5. On the other hand, add a little lye (NaOH) and you have a surplus of OH-. Now there might be 100 times fewer hydrogens than there were before, so or 10-9 of them, so now the pH is 9. In general, salts are ionic compounds that are composed of metallic ions and nonmetallic ions. For example, sodium chloride is composed of metallic sodi
