Hydronium

Mm-hmm.

So that part's still the same, but the side that got the hydrogen is now going to be H3O.

Mm-hmm.

That's usually how it's written.

So it's, it's...

If you remember, a normal water is H2O.

Now you have, like, H3O.

Think of it like a McDonald's Sprite.

In this case, it's only interacting with itself, but water can interact in the same way with other acids and bases.

Sometimes you'll see the hydronium ion written as a simple hydrogen ion, H+, allowing the reaction to be written with only one water molecule.

It's not technically accurate, but it's close enough to reality that it can be used to simplify things.

So when we say that the pH is the negative log

of the hydrogen ion concentration,

yeah, we actually mean hydronium ion concentration.

Just another thing that early scientists got a little bit wrong and now we have to live with.

Anyway, this dissociation of water is a reversible reaction, and in fact, the ions always reform into water within a tiny fraction of a second.

And when a proton gets donated in water, it is accepted by water.

And H2O is converted into H3O+, the hydronium ion.

So when an acid is added to water, it dissociates, like any other ionic compound, forming H3O+, and a negative ion.

The acid has donated a proton to the water.

Also a little chemistry terminology thing, we usually just write H+, or say protons in solution, when in fact we are referring to hydronium ions.

It's just a shorthand.

In reality, H+,

in aqueous solution, is always H3O+.

And in some cases, depending on the method, it could be worse.

Is hydrogen water actually H3O? Absolutely not.

What's the biggest myth in the hydrogen industry?

People claim that it's alkaline water or H3O or H3O2 or some sort of structure.

It is simply hydrogen gas dissolved in the water.

Okay, and one hydrogen trend that you wish would disappear? Deconflation of alkaline water.