Chapter 16, Problem 16.120QP

Interpretation Introduction

Interpretation:

Among the two given weak acids the stronger acid has to be identified under given concentrations.

Concept Introduction:

Strong acids:

In strong acids, the ionization of acid is complete.  This implies that the concentration of the hydrogen ion or hydronium ion will be equal to the initial concentration of the acid at equilibrium.

Weak acids:

In weak acids, the ionization of acid is not complete.  This implies that the concentration of the hydrogen ion or hydronium ion will not be equal to the initial concentration of the acid at equilibrium.

For strong acids the concentration of acid will be same as that of the concentration of hydrogen ions, because strong acids undergo complete ionization.

In case of weak acid, the concentration of hydrogen ion will be less than the concentration of given acid; since weak acid does not ionize completely.

pH definition:

The concentration of hydrogen ion is measured using $\text{pH}$ scale.  The acidity of aqueous solution is expressed by $\text{pH}$ scale.

The $\text{pH}$ of a solution is defined as the negative base-10 logarithm of the hydrogen or hydronium ion concentration.

  $\text{pH}\text{=}{\text{-log[H}}_{\text{3}}{\text{O}}^{\text{+}}\text{]}$