Hi, I am still sort of confused as to how we can tell if an acid or a base is strong or weak and why most inorganic acids are strong compared to organic acids. I know that strong acids lose a proton easily and the resulting anion must be stable, but I remember that we can somehow tell from Ka and Kb.
Thanks!
Indicators of strong or weak acid/base
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Re: Indicators of strong or weak acid/base
A simple indicator is if the question gives you the Ka or Kb, you should assume that it is a weak acid/base. This is because a strong acid/base has a very large Ka/Kb, so we just say that the reaction goes to completion and the acid is fully dissociated (HCl fully becomes H+ and Cl-).
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Re: Indicators of strong or weak acid/base
Just to clarify, this means that strong acids and bases have no Ka or Kb?
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Re: Indicators of strong or weak acid/base
Strong acids do have a Ka value, they are just very large since strong acids dissociate almost completely, therefore the products/reactants ratio would be very high, making the Ka value high.
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