Definition of hydrolysis Hydrolysis

/hajdɹɑˈlʌsʌs/ - [haydralusus] - hy•drol•y•sis

We found 7 definitions of hydrolysis from 6 different sources.

What does hydrolysis mean?

WordNet

Noun

Plural: hydrolyses

hydrolysis - a chemical reaction in which water reacts with a compound to produce other compounds; involves the splitting of a bond and the addition of the hydrogen cation and the hydroxide anion from the water

chemical reaction, reaction (chemistry) a process in which one or more substances are changed into others; "there was a chemical reaction of the lime with the ground water"

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Wiktionary

hydrolysis (Noun)
A chemical process of decomposition involving the splitting of a bond and the addition of the hydrogen cation and the hydroxide anion of water.
hydrolysis (Noun)
The degradation of certain biopolymers proteins, complex sugars by the chemical process that results in smaller polymers or monomers.

OmegaWiki DictionaryOmegaWiki Dictionary Ω

hydrolysis
Decomposition or alteration of a chemical substance by water; in aqueous solutions of electrolytes, the reactions of cations with water to produce a weak base or of anions to produce a weak acid.\n(Source: MGH)

Chambers DictionaryChamber's 20th Century Dictionary 📕

hydrolysis
hī-drol′i-sis, n. a kind of chemical decomposition by which a compound is resolved into other compounds by taking up the elements of water.—adj. Hydrolyt′ic. [Gr. hydōr, water, lysis—lyein, to loose.]

Wikipedia

Hydrolysis is a chemical reaction or process in which a chemical compound reacts with water. This is the type of reaction that is used to break down polymers into many smaller units. In this reaction always water is added to the chemical compound.

Hydrolysis of metal salts.

(As noted above, hydrolysis of metal salts is more commonly known as hydration.) Many metal ions are strong Lewis acids, and in water they may undergo hydrolysis to form "basic salts". Such salts contain a hydroxyl group that is directly bound to the metal ion in place of a water ligand. The positive charge on metal ions creates an attraction to water, a Lewis base with a non-binding electron pair on the oxygen atom, and alters water's electron density. This in turn increases the polarity of the O-H bond, which now acts as a proton donor under Brønsted-Lowry acid-base theory to release the hydrogen as a H+ ion, increasing the acidity of the solution. For example, aluminium chloride undergoes extensive hydrolysis in water such that the solution becomes very acidic.

formula_1

This implies that hydrogen chloride is lost in the evaporation of AlCl3 solutions and the residue is a basic salt (in this case an an "oxychloride") in place of AlCl3. Such behaviour is also seen with other metal chlorides such as ZnCl2, SnCl2, FeCl3 and lanthanide halides such as DyCl3. With some compounds such as TiCl4, the hydrolysis may go to completion and form the pure hydroxide or oxide, in this case TiO2.