How do you account for the difference in pH of a 1M HCl solution as compared to a 1M acetic acid solution?

Answer 1

HCl, as a strong acid, dissociates completely in water, so that 1.0 moles of HCl generates 1.0 mole of H+ and 1.0 mole of Cl-.

Acetic acid is a weak organic acid, with a pKa of 4.756. Only a fraction of the acetic acid dissociates, so 1.0 mole of acetic acid generates only 0.00413 moles of H+.

Answer 2

HCl is a strong acid, meaning that it completely dissociates in an aqueous solution. Acetic acid is a weak acid. Only some of it dissociates.

Because the HCl releases more H+ ions into solution, it has a lower pH. Remember that the pH is the negative log of the concentration of H+ ions.

Answer 3

pH is the measure of the strength of an acid or base. acid are strong when dissociates completely and weak when dissociation is not completed. since acetic acid is a weak acid its pH value will be above 3 while that of HCl be below three

Answer 4

acetic acid is a weak acid. hydrochloric acid is a strong acid.

well the chemical equation for acetic acid (an organic acid) has a reversible arrow. the arrow for hydrochloric acid is that of a one-way arrow. this means that acetic acid, although it dissociates in water to form positive hydrogen ions, will not fully dissociate. This means that some of the hydrogen ions will combine back with the negative acetic ions. so in acetic acid you get not as much positive hydrogen ions.

while in hydrochloric acid, it fully dissociates in water to form many hydrogen ions. and it doesnt recombine, so there are many many positive hydrogen ions. thus it has a higher pH.