Question

Hypo phosphorous acid, $H_{3}P{O}_2$ is:

• A. a monobasic acid
• B. a tribasic acid
• C. a dibasic acid
• D. not acidic at all

Answer 1

Answer: (A)

Hypophosphorus acid is a monobasic acid as it forms only one type of salts e.g., sodium hydrogen phosphite $(Na{H}_{2}P{O}_2)$ $NaOH+H_{3}P{O}_2\to Na{H}_{2}P{O}_2+H_{2}O$ Hypo phosphorous acid has 2-hydrogen atoms attached to phosphorus and one hydrogen atom attached to oxygen atom (which is ionisable). i.e., $\stackrel{\text{O}}{\stackrel{||}{\underset{\text{H}}{\underset{|}{H-\text{P}-OH}}}}$