Identify each of the following compounds as either a strong acid, weak acid, strong base, or weak base.

Question

The compounds are as follows:

HNO3, HBr, H2CO3, HF, NH4Cl, K2SO3, KOH, RbOH, and (CH3)3N

Answer 1

Remember that the strong acids are They are H2SO4, HI, HBr, HNO3, HCl, and HClO4. You can remember this via mnemonic SO I BRought NO CLean CLOthes. All other acids are weak acids.

Remember the strong bases are LiOH, NaOH, KOH, RbOH, CsOH, Mg(OH)2, Ca(OH)2, Sr(OH)2, Ba(OH)2. These are the hydroxides of most group I and group II metals on the periodic table.

HNO3 - strong acid

HBr - strong acid

H2CO3 - weak acid

HF - weak acid

NH4Cl - weak acid (NH4Cl --> NH4+ + Cl-, and NH4+ is a weak acid)

K2SO3 - weak base (K2SO3 --> 2 K+ + SO3^2-, and SO3^2- is a weak base)

KOH - strong base

RbOH - strong base

(CH3)3N - weak base (Lewis base with lone pair of electrons)

Happy to tutor you on additional chemistry topics - please feel free to shoot me a message!