TY - BOOK AU - Neils, Thomas L. AU - Silverstein, Todd P. | Schaertel, Stephanie TI - H2O(aq) Does Not Exist: Critique of a Proof-of-Concept Derivation (Journal Article) SN - 0021-9584 PY - 2023/// CY - Washington DC PB - :American Chemical Society KW - Physical Chemistry| Organic Chemistry| Misconceptions| Discrepant Events| Textbooks| Reference Books| Bronsted-Lowry Acids/Bases| Water Chemistry| Aqueous Solution Chemistry N1 - ***______{For Hard Copy, Please visit Library.}________*** N2 - Abstract: Although the pKa of water has been shown to be 14.0 at 25 °C both experimentally and theoretically, a subset of organic chemists has listed the pKa of water as 15.7 and the pKa of the aqueous proton (H+ or H3O+) as −1.7 since at least the early 1930s. These values were found primarily in research literature until the early 1960s, at which time they began appearing in organic chemistry textbooks. The validity of the 15.7/–1.7 values has been fiercely debated in the literature. At the heart of one argument supporting these values is the proposal that a small concentration of “solute” water molecules, H2O(aq), can exist in solution along with the solvent water molecules, H2O(l). No experimental evidence of H2O(aq) molecules has been reported, but at least one theoretical proof-of-concept for the existence of such molecules has been published in this Journal. Here we show that this theoretical proof is based on flawed assumptions and is therefore incorrect UR - https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jchemed.3c00099 ER -