"Bob" > wrote in message
news

>
> > > Anyone know if diammonium phosphate is an acid or base?
> > >Sounds like a base to me.....
> >
> > It's amphoteric, actually- it swings both ways.
>
> Great. My wine additives are bisexual. Wonder what that does to the
> wine drinker......
Nothing more than the alcohol itself will do.
> > I suspect it's more basic than acidic, but I'll have a chance to look up
> > the numbers after class.
I knew there was something I was forgetting to do. Diammonium phosphate
contains the ammonium ion (NH4 +, a very weak acid) and the hydrogen
phosphate ion (HPO4 2-), which is amphoteric. However, it's much more basic
than acidic- if you had that ion in water without the ammonium, it would
give a pH of about 10. The ammonium would moderate that a little- I
calculate that a 0.1 mol/L sol'n of the salt would be about 8ish, which is
basic.
So, yeah, it's more basic than acidic.