Lecture-8

Acid-Base Equilibrium
Associate Professor
Dr. Mohamed Zulkali Mohamed Daud
School of Bioprocess Engineering
University Malaysia Perlis
01-12/10/2012
ARRHENIUS THEORY-H+ AND OHˉ

 An acid is any substance that ionizes

(partially or completely) in water to give
hydrogen ions
 Means associate with solvent to give
hydronium ions
HA + H2O ↔ H3O+ + Aˉ
ARRHENIUS THEORY-H+ AND OHˉ

 A base ionizes in water to give hydroxyl ions.

 Weak (partially ionizes) bases ionizes as follows:
B + H2O ⇋ BH+ + OHˉ
For strong bases e.g.: (NaOH)
M(OH)n →Mn+ + nOHˉ
 this theory is restricted to water as a solvent only
 Franklin’s theory
 Recognizes the ionization of a solvent to
give a cation and an anion
e.g, 2H2O ⇋ H3O+ + OHˉ
2NH3 ⇋ NH4 + + NH2¯
 Acid = a solute that yields the cation of the solvent
 Base = a solute that yields the anion of the solvent
 Franklin’s theory
 e.g., NH4Cl is a strong acid in liquid ammonia
e.g., is a NaNH2 of strong base in ammonia
 Franklin’s theory
 Franklin’s Theory is suitable for ionizable solvent.
But it is not suitable to non ionizable solvents such
as benzene, dioxone, etc.
 Brønsted-Lowry theory
 Taking and giving protons
 States that an acid is any substance
that can donate a proton
 and a base is any substance that can
accept a proton.
 Half reaction

 Acid = H+ + base
 Acid and base of a half-reaction are called
conjugate pairs.
 There must be a combination of two half
reaction
 LEWIS THEORY
 Lewis introduce the electronic theory of
acids and bases
 Taking and giving electrons
 an acid is a substance that can accept an
electron pair and
 a base is a substance that can donate an
electron pair.
 Assumes a donation (sharing) of electrons
from a base to an acid.
 LEWIS THEORY
 Example of Lewis acid-base.
ACID-BASE EQUILIBRIA IN WATER

 When acid or base is dissolved in water, it

will dissociate
 Amount of ionization depends on the
strength of the acid
 Strong electrolyte completely dissociated
 Weak electrolyte dissociated partially
 Example:
a) Hydrochloric acid (strong acid)
 
HCl  H 2O  H 3O  Cl
a) Acetic acid (weak acid)
HOAc  H 2O  H 3O   OAc 
 Equilibrium constant
aH O   aOAc
K 
0 3

aHOAc  aH 2O
a

 K a
is
the thermodynamic activity
0

constant
 Pure water ionizes slightly
(autoprotolysis)
2 H 2O  H 3O   OH 
 Equilibrium constant
aH O   aOH 
K 
0
w
3

aH2 2O

w is thermodynamic autoprotolysis,
0
 K
self-ionization, constant
 H+ will be used instead of H3O+ for
simplification
 Molar concentration will be replaced by []
H OAc 
 
Ka 
HOAc   
K w  H  OH  
 Ka and Kw are molar equilibrium constants
 [H+]=1.0×10-7 M = [OH-]
 pH Scale
 Negative log of hydrogen ion conc.

 pH of water ?