Re:In Earth's hottest place, life has been found in strong acid
by wfunction on Monday August 07, 2017 @07:51PM
(#14952278)
What would be the threshold for calling something "pure acid" (in the acid/base sense ;) )?
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Re:In Earth's hottest place, life has been found in strong acid
by Pulcinella on Monday August 07, 2017 @08:30PM
(#14952450)
Well not in terms of pH, but there are several acids that can exist as a pure liquid, undiluted by water. Pure vinegar, undiluted by water, is called glacial acetic acid. It is something that can be bought from a chemical company. Because there is no water, there isn't really a pH. That doesn't mean it isn't incredibly hazardous, though.
Re:In Earth's hottest place, life has been found in strong acid
by aninhumer on Tuesday August 08, 2017 @04:11AM
(#14955596)
>Because there is no water, there isn't really a pH.
Could you elaborate? Wikipedia doesn't seem to suggest water is necessary (it talks about moles per unit volume) but I may be misunderstanding something.
Re:In Earth's hottest place, life has been found in strong acid
by tim333 on Tuesday August 08, 2017 @06:32AM
(#14956334)
The definition of pH is pretty much a measure of the proton concentration of things dissolved in water. You can look at similar measures in non aqueous solution but then it doesn't fit the definition properly.
Re:In Earth's hottest place, life has been found in strong acid
by tomsmeding on Tuesday August 08, 2017 @04:31AM
(#14955741)
I'd say you have moles per unit volume of H3O+ ions. These form as the combination of H+ ions (readily present in copious amounts of acid) and crucially, H2O molecules.