Next time you order your Starbucks, be sure to ask for your brew to be Hydronium free. If your barista laughs, you know they have a grasp of chemistry. If they look nervous and embarrassed, then you’ll know they have absolutely no clue.
H3O+ is the Hydronium ion. Adding an acid to water, by the Bronsted-Lowry definition of acid, adds extra H+ ions and generates H3O+, or Hydronium ions. But, water is a polar molecule and exists in a state of constant flux between what we know as H2O and it’s parts, H+ and OH-. So water is always freely and instantaneously changing between states and sometimes you actually have H3O+ even when no extra acid is present.
And that’s your chemistry lesson for the day.
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