The Effect of Acidic and Basic Diets in Chronic Nephritis

Like water, alcohols are weak acids and bases. This is attributed to the polarization of the O–H bond making the hydrogen partially positive. Moreover, the electron pairs on the oxygen atom of alcohol make it both basic and nucleophilic. Protonation of an alcohol converts hydroxide, a poor leaving group, into water—a good one. The two acid–base equilibria corresponding to ethanol are depicted below.

Carboxylic acids are the strongest among organic acids, as they readily lose the hydroxyl proton to form a resonance-stabilized carboxylate ion. In comparison, the acid derivatives lack acidic hydrogens directly attached to a functional group. In these compounds, the acidic nature arises from their ability to lose α hydrogens, making them weakly acidic.
The relative acidic strength of the derivatives can be explained based on the extent of resonance stabilization of the conjugate base. The...

Chemical reactions, such as those that occur when you light a match, involve changes in energy as well as matter.

Amino acids are the monomers that comprise proteins. Each amino acid has the same fundamental structure, which consists of a central carbon atom, or the alpha (α) carbon, bonded to an amino group (NH2), a carboxyl group (COOH), and to a hydrogen atom. Every amino acid also has another atom or group of atoms bonded to the central atom known as the R group. There are 20 common amino acids present in proteins, each with a different R group. Variation in the amino acid sequence is responsible for...

Salts with Acidic Ions
Salts are ionic compounds composed of cations and anions, either of which may be capable of undergoing an acid or base ionization reaction with water. Aqueous salt solutions, therefore, may be acidic, basic, or neutral, depending on the relative acid-base strengths of the salt’s constituent ions. For example, dissolving the ammonium chloride in water results in its dissociation, as described by the equation:

Amines can behave as Brønsted–Lowry bases by accepting a proton from the acid to form corresponding conjugate acids. Due to a lone pair of nonbonding electrons, aliphatic amines can also act as Lewis bases by forming a covalent bond with an electrophile.
To measure the basicity of amines, two conventions are generally used. The first defines Kb as the basicity constant for the deprotonation reaction of water by the amine, as presented in Figure 1. Conventionally, lower Kb indicates higher...