18.1 Introduction (ESAFL)

Many reactions in chemistry and all biological reactions (reactions in living systems) take place in water. We say that these reactions take place in aqueous solution. Water has many unique properties and is plentiful on Earth. For these reasons reactions in aqueous solutions occur frequently. In this chapter we will look at some of these reactions in detail. Almost all the reactions that occur in aqueous solutions involve ions. We will look at three main types of reactions that occur in aqueous solutions, namely precipitation reactions, acid-base reactions and redox reactions. Before we can learn about the types of reactions, we need to first look at ions in aqueous solutions and electrical conductivity.