What is a salt and how is it compared with acids and bases?

##"A salt"## is typically a simple binary compound of a metal and a non-metal, and it is typically formed in acid base reactions.

When an acid neutralizes a base (or vice versa) it forms a ##"salt"##, and water (typically we specify a water when we speak of ##"acid-base chemistry"##).

Consider the simplest acid-base reaction:

##NaOH(aq) + HCl(aq) rarr NaCl(aq) + H_2O(l)##

Certainly, sodium chloride, unquestionably a salt (a binary compound of a metal and a non-metal), AND water have been formed as the result of of ##HO^-## and ##H^+##. I write ##(aq)## beside the products and reactants, because in solution these species are ionized, e.g. ##HO^-##, ##Cl^-##, ##Na^+## etc.

The acidium species is often represented as ##H_3O^+##; this again is a representation. As fas as anyone knows this is a cluster of water molecules, with an extra ##H^+##, i.e. ##H_5O_2^+##, ##H_7O_3^+##. If we treat it as ##H^+##, or ##H_3O^+##, we are able to do calculations and .

All (aqueous) acid base chemistry can be represented by the word equation:

##"Acid + base " rarr" salt + water"##