9.5 Hydrolysis of Salts

Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

  • Predict whether a salt solution will be acidic, basic, or neutral
  • Calculate the concentrations of the various species in a salt solution
  • Describe the acid ionization of hydrated metal ions

Hydrolysis of salts refers to their ability to react with water in solution. Generally, this will result in formation of H+ or OH, giving the appearance of “splitting” water as in the root of this word: Hydro (water) lysis (breaking).