Recall the definition of an acid that you learned in chemistry. Explain how the reaction below illustrates the acidic properties of lactic acid.

Acids are proton donors. As viewed in the equation, the lactic acid partially dissociates in the water to form a conjugate base and hydronium ions. This is a property of an acid. The water acts as a base is donated a hydrogen ion be the lactic acid to form a conjugate acid H3O+.

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Oseni Oseni · Answer 2 · 2021-09-06T16:43:18+02:00

The definition of an acid to be recalled in this case would be that of Arrhenius.

Arrhenius defined acid as a substance which when dissociates in water gives off hydronium ion as its only positive charge.

Going by the definition, the reaction in the attached image sees lactic acid dissociating into its component ions in water. The positive ion is the hydronium ion while the negative ion is the lactate ion.

Hence, the production of hydronium ion as the only positive ion when dissociated in water showed the acidic properties of lactic acid with reference to Arrhenius's definition of acid.

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