How do indicators tell that something is a acid or a base? My teacher also said they can only tell once the acid or base is in water? Is this true and if yes. Then would these not be able to tell wheatgerm something is acadic or basic if we put it in complete form of it like not in water? Like its raw form.
In: Chemistry
Indicators work because they have multiple atoms that can lose or gain a proton, which changes the way light is absorbed by the molecule. In acids, there are more protons in solution and in bases, there are more proton accepting ions, so fewer free protons. If there are a bunch of protons in solution, they’ll want to naturally bond with something, and indicators have places for them to do that. When there are a lot of proton acceptors on solution, they want to bond with protons, so the indicator will donate their proton. These changes then lead the molecule to exhibit a different color.
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