The Student Room Group

Chemistry question

I was just completing my cgp chemistry book and there is a question I don't understand
It says
"The organic compound shown on the right is leucine. which of the following statements is incorrect"
The answer is Leucine reacts with sodium hydroxide to form the salt of its conjugate acid. why is this incorrect.
Reply 1
Original post by StoryMerchant
I was just completing my cgp chemistry book and there is a question I don't understand
It says
"The organic compound shown on the right is leucine. which of the following statements is incorrect"
The answer is Leucine reacts with sodium hydroxide to form the salt of its conjugate acid. why is this incorrect.

i’m not entirely sure but maybe its bc when they react with a strong base like NaOH they produce a sodium carboxylate salt and water. so while a salt is produced it’s not the salt of a conjugate acid since amino acids in its zwitterion form is neutral (both acidic and basic group)
(edited 11 months ago)
Reply 2
Original post by nnnn6666
i’m not entirely sure but maybe its bc when they react with a strong base like NaOH they produce a sodium carboxylate salt and water. so while a salt is produced it’s not the salt of a conjugate acid since amino acids in its zwitterion form is neutral (both acidic and basic group)


Thank you, I was thinking something similar I was also wondering if the trick is it says " conjugate acid" instead of "conjugate base"
Reply 3
Original post by StoryMerchant
Thank you, I was thinking something similar I was also wondering if the trick is it says " conjugate acid" instead of "conjugate base"

yeah that could be it. tbh i wouldn’t use the phrase ‘conjugate acid/base’ if we weren’t talking about weak acids/base eg weak acids would dissociate into it’s conjugate base. whereas with the amino acids reacting with NaOH, Na replaces one of the hydrogens in the carbxyl group to form the sodium salt which i couldn’t call a conjugate base either. it’s kinda like if u were to react a carboxylic acid acid with NaOH u would get a sodium salt

Quick Reply

Latest