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Leland Shenfield

Is urea acidic or basic?

Alicia Frizzell  Follow
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Alvin Funk  Follow

The amine group (-NH[math]_2[/math]) in urea can accept a hydrogen ion, making it a basic substance. However, the carbonyl group (-C=O) offers a significant opportunity for resonance, which will stabilise the amine group. This means, urea is very slightly basic (and very close to neutral).

The strength of its basic nature can be measured by its pK[math]_{ext{b}}[/math] value. Wikipedia says it’s 13.9[1] , which makes it (for all purposes) a neutral substance. The pK[math]_{ext{b}}[/math] of a neutral substance is close to 14.0 at RTP. Theoretically, a 0.100 mol dm[math]^{-3}[/math] of urea has a pH of 7.05 .

Footnotes

[1] Urea - Wikipedia

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