An early use of relaxation methods by Manfred Eigen found that this reaction takes ten hours in one direction but only picoseconds in reverse. The “rational” equilibrium constant for this reaction is 1.74 magnitudes too small in some organic chemistry textbooks due to a convention mistakenly introduced by Johannes Brønsted. The spatial separation of this reaction’s products is facilitated by solvent clusters that form a “wire” between them. The Charlot equation explicitly considers the effects of this reaction, which is ignored by the Henderson–Hasselbalch equation. Using an activity of 1 instead of a concentration of 55 M allows a value of 10 to the negative 14 to be assigned to this reaction’s equilibrium constant, K-sub-w. For 10 points, name this reaction that ensures water has a non-zero concentration of both hydronium and hydroxide. ■END■
ANSWER: autoionization of water [or self-ionization; accept autoprotolysis, self-dissociation, autodissociation, disproportionation of water, or word forms; prompt on ionization or protolysis or dissociation; prompt on formation of hydronium, H3O+, hydroxide, or OH− until “hydronium” is read; prompt on neutralization of hydronium and hydroxide until “hydronium” is read by asking “what is the reverse reaction?”] (The rational value of pKw is 15.74; the log of 55 is 1.74.)
<Chemistry>
= Average correct buzz position