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NEET levelSingle correct optionDifficulty 1 of 3ia004

Ammonium acetate is dissolved in water at 298 K. Given $K_{a} (CH X_{3} COOH) = K_{b} (NH X_{3})$ , the solution is

Aacidic, because $NH X_{4} X^{+}$ hydrolyses
Bbasic, because $CH X_{3} COO X^{-}$ hydrolyses
Cneutral because neither ion hydrolyses
Dneutral (pH = 7) and the salt is hydrolysed to a considerable extent

Answer: D

Both ions hydrolyse. The solution is governed by

pH = 7 + \frac{1}{2} (p K_{a} - p K_{b})

. With

K_{a} = K_{b}

the pH is 7, even though the salt is appreciably hydrolysed.

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