Department of Energy Argonne National Laboratory Office of Science NEWTON's Homepage NEWTON's Homepage
NEWTON, Ask A Scientist!
NEWTON Home Page NEWTON Teachers Visit Our Archives Ask A Question How To Ask A Question Question of the Week Our Expert Scientists Volunteer at NEWTON! Frequently Asked Questions Referencing NEWTON About NEWTON About Ask A Scientist Education At Argonne Bronsted-Lowry definition of acid/bases 
Name:  mwang
Status: N/A
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 1999
Question:
Pertaining to the Bronsted Lowry definition of acids and bases, how come the strength of a conjugate acid or base is inversely proprtional to the strength of the other acid/base?

It seems that the more willing a acid or base is to give up/accept a proton, the more willing its conjugate should accept/let go of one.


Replies:
Think of it this way: If strong and weak are competing, the strong one will always win. A strong conjugate base will always attract a proton. A strong conjugate acid will always leave its weak base. There's nothing the weak species can do about it. Cl- is a weak base. It can't hold onto it's proton so HCl will always completely dissociate. CH3COO- (acetate ion) is a strong conjugate base. It doesn't want to give up the proton and the proton can't do anything about it. So acetic acid doesn't totally dissociate. Any clearer?

-Joe Schultz


Click here to return to the Chemistry Archives

NEWTON is an electronic community for Science, Math, and Computer Science K-12 Educators, sponsored and operated by Argonne National Laboratory's Educational Programs, Andrew Skipor, Ph.D., Head of Educational Programs.

For assistance with NEWTON contact a System Operator (help@newton.dep.anl.gov), or at Argonne's Educational Programs

NEWTON AND ASK A SCIENTIST
Educational Programs
Building 360
9700 S. Cass Ave.
Argonne, Illinois
60439-4845, USA
Update: June 2012
Weclome To Newton

Argonne National Laboratory