A Few Facts About Our Acids and Bases

Healthy blood is very weakly basic, with a pH range of 7.35-7.45. If the pH drops below this range of values, the result is a condition called acidosis. Severe acidosis (pH 7.0) leads to depression of the central nervous system, which starts malfunctioning (leading to disorientation and, if the condition is very severe, possibly a comatose state). If the pH rises above 7.45, the condition is called alkalosis. This condition causes hypertension and muscle spasms, and it can even lead to death. As a result, the pH value of our blood is highly regulated by buffers, which are molecules that consume any extra protons or hydroxide ions and keep the pH constant or variant in a narrow interval. 

SCHEME 8.15 Our stomach is protected from being digested by its own HCI content. This protection involves generation of bicarbonate (HC03 ), which takes up a proton and generates carbonic acid (H2CO3). Carbonic acid subsequently falls apart to CO2 and H2O. 

A daily usage of bicarbonate is as baking soda, which reacts with an acidic ingredient in dough and produces carbonic acid, which decomposes and gives off CO2, which in turn causes the dough to leaven. 

Ionic bonds are formed by combinations of the least electronegative atoms— the members of groups lA—3A (except for H, Be, and B) and the transition metals, which form cations (positive ions)—with the most electronegative atoms, the members of groups 5A—7A, which form anions. A typical example is Na Cl . There are also ionic materials made from complex ions, such as NH4+CrorMg +SO/-. 

Ionic bonds involve opposite ions glued together by electric attraction. The principle of construction of ionic bonds uses the click-clack method. Initially, we click the valence electrons based on the connectivity of the two atoms for example, for the single connectors Na and Cl, we can form one click bond. Subsequently, we clack and transfer the so-generated electron pair(s) to the more electronegative atom. In this manner, the two ions maintain their states of Nirvana and generate ionic bonds that obey the octet rule. 

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