The Hammett acidity function (H0) is a measure of acidity that is used for very concentrated solutions of strong acids, including superacids. It was proposed by the physical organic chemist Louis Plack Hammett[1][2] and is the best-known acidity function used to extend the measure of Brønsted–Lowry acidity beyond the dilute aqueous solutions for which the pH scale is useful.
In highly concentrated solutions, simple approximations such as the Henderson–Hasselbalch equation are no longer valid due to the variations of the activity coefficients. The Hammett acidity function is used in fields such as physical organic chemistry for the study of acid-catalyzed reactions, because some of these reactions use acids in very high concentrations, or even neat (pure).[3]
- ^ L. P. Hammett and A. J. Deyrup (1932) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 54, 2721
- ^ L. P. Hammett (1940). Physical Organic Chemistry. (McGraw-Hill)
- ^ Gerrylynn K. Roberts, Colin Archibald Russell. Chemical History: Reviews of the Recent Literature. Royal Society of Chemistry, 2005. ISBN 0-85404-464-7.