Strong acids, defined

Although not commonly used, thermometric titrations have one distinct advantage over methods based on the direct or indirect monitoring of plT. As discussed earlier, visual indicators and potentiometric titration curves are limited by the magnitude of the relevant equilibrium constants. For example, the titration of boric acid, ITaBOa, for which is 5.8 X 10 °, yields a poorly defined equivalence point (Figure 9.15a). The enthalpy of neutralization for boric acid with NaOlT, however, is only 23% less than that for a strong acid (-42.7 kj/mol... 

Equivalent Weights Acid-base titrations can be used to characterize the chemical and physical properties of matter. One simple example is the determination of the equivalent weighf of acids and bases. In this method, an accurately weighed sample of a pure acid or base is titrated to a well-defined equivalence point using a mono-protic strong acid or strong base. If we assume that the titration involves the transfer of n protons, then the moles of titrant needed to reach the equivalence point is given as... 

Ho, the acidity function introduced by Hammett, is a measure of the ability of the solvent to transfer a proton to a base of neutral charge. In dilute aqueous solution ho becomes equal to t d Hq is equal to pH, but in strongly acid solutions Hq will differ from both pH and — log ch+. The determination of Ho is accomplished with the aid of Eq. (8-89) and a series of neutral indicator bases (the nitroanilines in Table 8-18) whose pA bh+ values have been measured by the overlap method. Table 8-19 lists Ho values for some aqueous solutions of common mineral acids. Analogous acidity functions have been defined for bases of other structural and charge types, such as // for amides and Hf for bases that ionize with the production of a carbocation ... 

The concept of oxidation number leads directly to a working definition of the terms oxidation and reduction. Oxidation is defined as an increase in oxidation number and reduction as a decrease in oxidation number. Consider once again the reaction of zinc with a strong acid ... 

In contrast, aromatic sulphoxides do not need extreme experimental conditions to give a well-defined step in polarography and voltammetry. Thus methyl phenyl sulphoxide (80) exhibits69 a well-defined wave in strongly acidic media at very moderate potential values. The reduction scheme assumes the transient formation of a protonated form prior to the electron transfer ... 

Figure 15-12 is a schematic illustration of a technique known as acid volatile sulfides/ simultaneously extracted metals analysis (AVS/SEM). Briefly, a strong acid is added to a sediment sample to release the sediment-associated sulfides, acid volatile sulfides, which are analyzed by a cold-acid purge-and-trap technique (e.g., Allen et ai, 1993). The assumption shown in Fig. 15-12 is that the sulfides are present in the sediments in the form of either FeS or MeS (a metal sulfide). In a parallel analysis, metals simultaneously released with the sulfides (the simultaneously extracted metals) are also quantified, for example, by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. Metals released during the acid attack are considered to be associated with the phases operationally defined as "exchangeable," "carbonate," "Fe and Mn oxides," "FeS," and "MeS."... 

When placed in water, some acids and bases completely ionize, or dissociate into their ions—but others do not. Acids and bases that completely ionize are called strong acids and strong bases. Strong acids are defined as acids that have a pH of 0-4. Strong bases have pH values of 10-14. On the other hand, weak acids and weak bases do not disassociate completely in water. This leads to a pH value that is closer to neutral, because some of the hydrogen ions are still attached to other atoms, decreasing the hydrogen ion concentration. 

If the solvent is not protogenic but protophilic (acetone, dioxan, tetrahydrofuran, dimethylformamide, etc.), self-ionization obviously does not occur. Consequently, the dissolved acids are dissociated to a greater or lesser degree but dissolved bases do not undergo protolysis. Thus, there can exist only strong acids but no strong bases in these solvents. The pH is not defined for a solution that does not contain a dissolved acid (i.e. in the pure solvent or in the solution of a base). The pKA value can be defined but not... 

Many of the reactions that take place in strong acid media cannot really be defined as being simple Al, A-Se2 or A2 processes, and some of these will be described here. Space considerations preclude detailed discussion of all of the... 

Electrolytes are defined as substances whose aqueous solutions conduct electricity due to the presence of ions in solution. Acids, soluble bases and soluble salts are electrolytes. Measuring the extent to which a substance s aqueous solution conducts electricity is how chemists determine whether it is a strong or weak electrolyte. If the solution conducts electricity well, the solute is a strong electrolyte, like the strong acid, HC1 if it conducts electricity poorly, the solute is a weak electrolyte, like the weak acid, HF. 

Nafion-H, a perfluorinated sulfonic acid resin, is another strongly acidic solid that has been explored as alkylation catalyst. Rprvik et al. (204) examined unsupported Nafion-H with a nominal surface area of 0.2 m2/g (surface area of a swellable polymer is difficult to define) in isobutane/2-butene alkylation at 353 K and compared it with a CeY zeolite. The zeolite gave a better alkylate and higher conversion than Nafion-H, which produced significant amounts of octenes and heavy-end products. The low surface area of the resin and questions about the accessibility of the sulfonic acid groups probably make the comparison inadequate. 

A buffer comprises (1) a weak acid and a salt of that acid, (2) a weak base and a salt of that base, or (3) it may contain an acid salt. We define an acid-base buffer as a solution whose pH does not change after adding (small amounts of) a strong acid or base . Sodium ascorbate is a favourite buffer in the food industry. 

At the microscopic level, the Arrhenius theory defines acids as substances which, when dissolved in water, yield the hydronium ion (H30+) or H+(aq). Bases are defined as substances which, when dissolved in water, yield the hydroxide ion (OH). Acids and bases may be strong (as in strong electrolytes), dissociating completely in water, or weak (as in weak electrolytes), partially dissociating in water. (We will see the more useful Brpnsted-Lowry definitions of acids and bases in Chapter 15.) Strong acids include ... 

The extent to which the pH of a solution is buffered against additions or removals of protons is measured by the solution s pH buffer capacity. This is defined as the amount of strong acid or base required to produce unit change in pH. The buffering depends on the transfer of protons between donors and acceptors, i.e. Bronsted acids and bases, which form conjugate acid-base pairs. The pH buffer capacity of a solution is calculated from the buffer capacities of the individual acid-base pairs present. 

The HCO amount listed in table 8.28 actually represent carbonate alkalinity, calculated neglecting CO ". The alkalinity [Aik] of a solution represents its capacity to neutralize strong acids in solution. Alkalinity can be defined as the sum of equivalents of all species whose concentrations depend on the concentration of ions in solution, minus the concentration of ions in solution. For a solution containing borates and carbonates, alkalinity can be expressed as... 

Table 10-3 gives acid ionization constants for several familiar acids at 25 C. The values for the strong acids are not well defined. Examine the Ions column and see how every acid yields a hydrogen ion and a complementary anion in solution. 

A fairly strongly acidic thioacetamide bath (pH between 1 and 2) was described in Ref 23, both with and without EDTA (sodium salt) as a complexant While some structural differences as well as variations in film thickness were noted between the films deposited from baths with and without EDTA, they were not highly significant. As with most other acidic baths, the films were clearly crystalline, showing defined XRD peaks that allowed a crystal size of the order of 10 nm to be estimated. 

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