Strength of acids and bases

[Sarah Rutzick 1L]

Does electronegativity have anything to do with the strength of acids or bases?

[David Minasyan 1C]

Yes. If the element bonded to a Hydrogen atom is really electronegative then the electrons are largely attracted to that element instead of it being equally distributed so its more likely that the Hydrogen "falls off." That makes the compound more electronegative.

[Kyle Alves 3K]

Lavelle also provided a good example in his past lecture of relative acidity!
Cl - O - H
Br - O - H
I - O -H

Since Cl is so electronegative, it stabilizes the negatively charged O by drawing in e- density, making it more acidic than I - O - H

[GabrielGarciaDiscussion1i]

Absolutely, when determining the strength of acids and bases, you can use electronegativity as one of the indicators when it comes to electron withdrawing groups.
Some of the other indicators you should use are:
----The length of the bond between the proton and the acid
----The number of resonance structures for the conjugate base/acid (more resonance = more stability = more likely to be created = stronger acid/base)
----The electron withdrawing groups within a conjugate base/acid (If the group is more electronegative, then it will help to distribute the e- more widely over the entire conjugate. This will then lead to a more stable conjugate and see the explanation above with resonance structures to understand how a more stable conjugate leads to a stronger acid/base.)