What are Acids, Bases, and Salts?

Many acids and bases occur naturally in nature, such as citric acid in fruits like orange, lemon, etc, tartaric acid in tamarind, malic acid in apples, and lactic acid in milk and milk products, hydrochloric acid in gastric juices.

Similarly, many bases are found such as lime water. We use many of these acids in our day-to-day life, such as vinegar or acetic acid in the kitchen, boric acid for laundry, baking soda for the purpose of cooking, washing soda for cleaning, etc.

Many of the acids that we do not consume in the household are used in the laboratories and industries, which include an acid such as HCl, H₂SO₄ etc, and bases such as NaOH, KOH etc. When these acids and bases are mixed in the right proportions, the neutralization reaction thus results in the formation of salt and water. Some naturally occurring salts found in nature include NaCl and KCl etc in seawater and natural rock deposits. In this section, we will read more about acid, base, and salt and their properties.