Weak/Strong Acids/Bases

[Chris_Strickhouser_1A]

Is there a short way to know if a molecule is a weak/strong acid/base? I think I remember the professor mentioning something about lone pairs however, I am not sure.

[Tricia Tran 1G]

The professor posted a list of common strong/weak acids and bases. Other than that, the professor mentioned that typically, weak bases have nitrogen with the lone pair (ex: NH3).

[Megan Mitchell 2B]

The 7 strong acids are HCl, HNO3, H2SO4, HBr, HI, HClO4, and HClO3. Any other acid is a weak acid. Strong bases are metal oxides and metal hydroxides, such as LiOH or LI2O. Because strong acids and bases dissociate fully, it is very hard to measure a Ka or Kb value. So one clue that you can use is if an acid or base has a Ka or Kb value listed, it is probably a weak acid or base.

[Linette Ocegueda 3D]

I’m not sure about the lone pairs part but I think something useful could be memorizing the strong acid and bases and if you don’t see it then you can consider that it can be a weak base or acid