Strong and Weak Acids

• • Strong acids completely ionise in aqueous solutions
  • All acid particles dissociate to release H+ ions
• • Weak acids ionise partially in aqueous solutions
  • Some acid particles dissociate to release H+ ions
  • Examples of weak acids: ethanoic, citric, carbonic acids
• • Examples of strong acids: sulfuric, hydrochloric, nitric acids
• • The higher the concentration of H+ ions, the increased rate of reaction
  • So, strong acids will be more reactive than weak acids of the same concentration
• • PH is measure of concentration of H+ ions in solution
  • As the pH decreases by one unit, hydrogen ion concentration of solution increases by factor of 10
  • PH of strong acid is less than PH of weak acid with same concentration
• • A dilute acid is a volume of solution with a small amount of acid per unit volume
  • A concentrated acid is a volume of solution with a large amount of acid per unit volume