How water affects acids?

Question

if of water added to an acid is changed, will it mater (pH level etc.) i know i feeli dumb asking this

Answer 1

There is a lot of confusion about pH.
I don't know the level that you want the info but I'll provide advanced info to cover everyone.

First of all the strength of the acid is measured by the equilibrium constant Ka and not its concentration. Thus diluting the acid you increase the pH (since you decrease [H+]) but you DON'T alter its strength.

Though high school students are taught that pH= -log[H+] (and we often use that) in reality pH=-log α(H+) where
α(H+) is the activity or effective concentration of H+.
As you can tell by its name it is the value of concentration which determines the properties of the H+ chemical species and it is related with the true concentration C (or [H+]) according to the equation α = γ*C (or α = γ*m, where m=molality) with γ the activity coefficient.
For very dilute solutions γ~1 and thus a=C
As the acid concentration increases γ becomes more and more smaller than 1. Thus the pH value increases but not as much as we would expect according to the true value of acid concentration. The value of γ reaches a minimum which depends on the conditions and solution and then starts to elevate, reaching extremely high values, e.g. a 7.622 m H2SO4 solution has γ=165.4 resulting in a negative pH of -3.13 This has been published by Nordstrom and co-workers.

So when you add water to an acid, the strength of the acid is not altered, and the pH of the resulting solution will depend on how much water you add. The more water you add the more the pH will increase towards 7.00 (at room temperature). No matter how much water you put, the pH will not go above 7.00 as the self-ionization of water will be dominant keeping the pH at that value (7.00)

Answer 2

Water is a neutral substance. It will bring the acid up towards a 7 on the pH scale. Water will make an acid less acidic when added.

Answer 3

Water added to an acid is diluting it. The acid becomes weaker and it's pH moves towards the neutral (pH 7.0)

Answer 4

neutral is 7.0 not 0. 0 is an extreme acid. the scale is between 0 and 14. 14 is base. the acid would become closer to 7, not 0. Also for safety reasons, pour the acid into the water slowly, so the acid doesn't splash you.

Answer 5

Pure, distilled water will reduce the pH, but only because it dilutes the solution. If you have a 1 kmol / litre solution of HCl (very, very acidic) in 1 litre of solution, then suddenly mix it with 99 litres of pure, distilled water, you will now have a concentration of exactly 1/100th the original.

And, the pH of an acid is calculated by the concentration of the Hydrogen protination (H+) in solution. (pH = log_10 ([H+]) if I recall correctly.)

Answer 6

water is nuetral i.e. pH 0. acid or base, either way the pH level is going to come closer to zero.

Answer 7

water makes acids less acidic... i 'm not sure.. but i think it's because... it makes acids release H+ ions.. but i'm not really sure.. hehe