15 4 Acid Strength and the Acid Ionization Constant ACID STRENGTH HA aq H2O l H3O aq A aq HA is the acid while A is the conjugate base A strong acid completely ionizes in solution represented by A weak acid only partially ionizes in solution represented by Acids can be classified according to the number of protons it has Monoprotic Acid Diprotic Acid Triprotic Acid HA can give off one proton H2A can give off two protons H3A can give off three protons Stronger acids give off protons easily while weaker acids don t give off protons very easily This indicates that the conjugate base of a stronger acid is weaker than the conjugate base of a weaker acid ACID IONIZATION CONSTANT Ka Ka H3O A HA Ka provides information about the strength of the acid It is a general rule that any acid with a Ka less than 1 is a weak acid and any acid with a Ka greater than 1 is a strong acid The smaller the Ka the weaker the acid The larger the Ka the stronger the acid So if you are looking at two weak acids the one with the larger Ka values will the be stronger of the two Remember it is not a STRONG acid it is just the stronger of the two weak acids
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