salt
Salts of Weak Bases and Strong Acids When we neutralize a weak base with a strong acid, the product is a salt containing the conjugate acid of the weak base. This conjugate acid is a weak acid. For example, ammonium chloride, NH4Cl, is a salt formed by the reaction of the weak base ammonia with the strong acid HCl: NH 3 aq + HCl aq NH 4 Cl aq A solution of this salt contains ammonium ions and chloride ions. The chloride ion has no effect on the acidity of the solution since HCl is a strong acid. Chloride is a very weak base and will not accept a proton to a measurable extent. However, the ammonium ion, the conjugate acid of ammonia, reacts with water and increases the hydronium ion concentration: NH 4 + aq + H 2 O l H 3 O + aq + NH 3 aq The equilibrium equation for this reaction is simply the ionization constant. Ka, for the acid NH 4 + :.