The Aqueous Proton Is Hydrated by More Than One Water Molecule: Is the Hydronium Ion a Useful Conceit?

• Autores: Todd P. Silverstein
• Localización: Journal of chemical education, ISSN 0021-9584, Vol. 91, Nº 4, 2014, págs. 608-610
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • For some time now, there has been disagreement concerning the best way to denote the aqueous proton in chemical equations. Recent results have shown that although the hydronium ion, H3O+ , may exist as a participant in some kinetic mechanisms, the thermodynamic ground-state structure for the hydrated proton is actually the hexahydrate, H+ ·(H2O)6, or H13O6 + . We report here a short history of this debate and a brief summary of the recent spectroscopic results. Finally, we argue that in the overwhelming majority of reactions studied in lower-division college and high school chemistry courses, it is preferable to use H+ (aq) rather than H3O+ (aq) to depict the hydrated proton.