In chemistry any solvent that carries hydrogen attached to oxygen as in a hydroxyl group or nitrogen as in a amine group is called a protic solvent.
Common characteristics:
examples are water, methanol, ethanol, formic acid and ammonia.
aprotic solvents are solvents that share ion dissolving power with protic solvents but lack acidic hydrogen. These solvents generally have high dielectric constants and high polarity
examples are dimethyl sulfoxide, dimethylformamide and hexamethylphosphorotriamide .
