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In water, measurable pK a values range from about −2 for a strong acid to about 12 for a very weak acid (or strong base). A buffer solution of a desired pH can be prepared as a mixture of a weak acid and its conjugate base. In practice, the mixture can be created by dissolving the acid in water, and adding the requisite amount of strong acid ...
For example, if the concentration of the conjugate base is 10 times greater than the concentration of the acid, their ratio is 10:1, and consequently the pH is pK a + 1 or pK b + 1. Conversely, if a 10-fold excess of the acid occurs with respect to the base, the ratio is 1:10 and the pH is p K a − 1 or p K b − 1.
Acid strength is the tendency of an acid, symbolised by the chemical formula, to dissociate into a proton, +, and an anion, .The dissociation or ionization of a strong acid in solution is effectively complete, except in its most concentrated solutions.
Strong acids, such as sulfuric or phosphoric acid, have large dissociation constants; weak acids, such as acetic acid, have small dissociation constants. The symbol K a , used for the acid dissociation constant, can lead to confusion with the association constant , and it may be necessary to see the reaction or the equilibrium expression to ...
When a strong acid is dissolved in water, it reacts with it to form hydronium ion (H 3 O +). [2] An example of this would be the following reaction, where "HA" is the strong acid: HA + H 2 O → A − + H 3 O + Any acid that is stronger than H 3 O + reacts with H 2 O to form H 3 O +. Therefore, no acid stronger than H 3 O + exists in H 2 O.
Carborane acids H(CXB 11 Y 5 Z 6) (X, Y, Z = H, Alk, F, Cl, Br, CF 3) are a class of superacids, [1] some of which are estimated to be at least one million times stronger than 100% pure sulfuric acid in terms of their Hammett acidity function values (H 0 ≤ –18) and possess computed pK a values well below –20, establishing them as some of the strongest known Brønsted acids.
For example, the pK a value of acetic acid is 4.8, while ethanol has a pK a of 16. Hence acetic acid is a much stronger acid than ethanol. This in turn means that for equimolar solutions of a carboxylic acid or an alcohol in water, the carboxylic acid would have a much lower pH. [1]: 263–7
On the other hand, if a chemical is a weak acid its conjugate base will not necessarily be strong. Consider that ethanoate, the conjugate base of ethanoic acid, has a base splitting constant (Kb) of about 5.6 × 10 −10, making it a weak base. In order for a species to have a strong conjugate base it has to be a very weak acid, like water.