Arrhenius Acids

What is Arrhenius acid? 

Many scientists discovered the various characteristics of acids and bases through their studies, theories, and experiments. One such wonder was provided by Svante Arrhenius, a Swedish scientist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work on the concept of ionisation. He used the equal questioning of ionisation to describe the nature of acids and bases in aqueous solutions.

According to Arrhenius, an acid is any species that will extend the interest of hydrogen ions in aqueous solutions. When an aqueous solution of hydrochloric acid is made, it dissociates into hydrogen and chlorine ions as the products of the reaction. Since this results in an increase in the number of hydrogen ions, hydrochloric acid is considered to be an Arrhenius acid in a refined way. When the reaction takes place in practice, the positively charged protons react with the surrounding water molecules to form hydronium ions. 

The Basicity of Acids   

Since Arrhenius acid dissociates in water to typically produce hydrogen ions it certainly is handy to apprehend the concept of basicity. When an Arrhenius acid reacts with water the number of hydrogen ions that it produces which are modified suggest the basicity of the acid. 

For instance when phosphoric acid dissociates in an aqueous solution it produces three hydrogen ions. Subsequently if we relate this reaction with the information above, the answer to the basicity of phosphoric acid will be 3.

Arrhenius acid as an Electrolyte    

The concept of Arrhenius acid as electrolyte is better understood through a story.

Svante, while proceeding with his research on ionisation, grew curious to study the nature of certain solutions which could conduct electricity. Upon experimenting on the same, he found that the presence of ions was once inflicting the drift of electricity. Therefore the ions in the respective solutions were the reason they could conduct electricity. In this test he took three acids HCl, HNO3, H2SO4 declaring them to be sturdy. When these reacted with water they acted as strong electrolytes, resulting in the name.

For instance –

• 150 molecules of HCl in water will result in the formation of two commodities that are one hundred fifty hydrogen ions and the equal amount 150 Cl– ions. Thus, it proves that HCl is a strong electrolyte as it dissociates with water and for this reason is also recognized as a strong acid. 

Weak acids due to their partial or incomplete dissociation cannot supply hydrogen ions and for this reason exist in an equilibrium with un-dissociated acid alongside the ions released in the direction of the fairly partial dissociation. The quantity of hydrogen ions is very low and they show a high pH value, compared to strong acids. The acid dissociation is basically much less for weak acids.

 Examples    

1. Perchloric acid
2. Nitric acid
3. Sulphuric acid
4. Iodic acid 
5. Oxalic acid

Conclusion    

We can conclude that species that will extend the interest of hydrogen ions in aqueous solutions are known as Arrhenius acids. When an Arrhenius acid reacts with water the number of hydrogen ions produced are modified in a similar fashion which suggests the basicity of Arrhenius acid. Along with that the species completely dissociating with water are called strong acids and the ones that partially dissociate are called weak acids.