ABSTRACT
Note that reaction 1.1 represents acid dissociation in water, or aqueous solution, yet pKa values can in principal be determined in any solvent. Deprotonation reactions such as reaction 1.1 are most often written with (aq) representing the unknown micro and bulk solvation effects of the solvent, water in this case. The exact nature of the solvated proton in water is unknown at this time and is the subject of much research; the standard practice is to use a nominal definition for the solvated proton, and to represent the solvated proton as H+(aq) [32,33]. This practice is justified because the solvated proton exists in a cluster of many water molecules, and proton transfer reactions depend on the magnitude of the proton’s solvation
free energy and not on the geometric details of the proton’s solvation shell [32,34].
