Salt (chemistry)

In chemistry, a salt is an ionic compound that results from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. Salts are composed of related numbers of cations (positively charged ions) and anions (negative ions) so that the product is electrically neutral (without a net charge). These component ions can be inorganic, such as chloride (Cl⁻), or organic, such as acetate (CH
3CO−
2); and can be monatomic, such as fluoride (F⁻), or polyatomic, such as sulfate (SO2−
4).

There are several varieties of salts. Salts that hydrolyze to produce hydroxide ions when dissolved in water are alkali salts, whilst those that hydrolyze to produce hydronium ions in water are acidic salts. Neutral salts are those that are neither acid nor basic salts. Zwitterions contain an anionic centre and a cationic centre in the same molecule, but are not considered to be salts. Examples of zwitterions include amino acids, many metabolites, peptides, and proteins.

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