Neutralisation is the name given to the class of reactions between acids and alkalis (or bases) that produce a salt plus water as products. Learners may think that neutralisation leads to neutral products. However not all salts are neutral.
Neutralisation leads to neutral products when the acids and base have comparable strength – so a strong acid plus a strong alkali leads to a neutral salt. So, when reacting HCl and NaOH, for example, the end point may be found using an indicator to check for a pH of 7. However this would not work in general as not all neutralisation reactions leads to neutral products.
Of course, many neutralisation reactions do lead to neutral products and indeed (perhaps of particular significance) the examples of neutralisation most often used in introductory chemistry teaching do lead to a neutral products.
Yet, despite the term 'neutralisation' perhaps seeming to imply the production of something neutral, it is not generally the case that the products of neutrlsaition reactions are neutral. Learners therefore commonly over-generalise to all examples of neutralisation.
Read about the nature of alternative conceptions
Read about some examples of science misconceptions
Read about historical scientific conceptions
[Please be aware that a word may have different nuances, or even a different meaning, according to context.]« Back to Index
