ALKALI

Alkali

In chemistry, an alkali is a basic, ionic salt of an alkali metal or alkaline earth metal chemical element. Some authors also define an alkali as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a soluble base has a pH greater than 7.0. The adjective alkaline is commonly, and alkalescent less often, used in English as a synonym for basic, especially for soluble bases. This broad use of the term is likely to have come about because alkalis were the first bases known to obey the Arrhenius definition of a base, and they are still among the most common bases.

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alkali

Noun

  1. One of a class of caustic bases, such as soda, potash, ammonia, and lithia, whose distinguishing peculiarities are solubility in alcohol and water, uniting with oils and fats to form soap, neutralizing and forming salts with acids, turning to brown several vegetable yellows, and changing reddened litmus to blue.
  2. Soda ash; caustic soda, caustic potash, etc.
  1. Soluble mineral matter, other than common salt, contained in soils of natural waters.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: alkali
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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