Acids and Bases: Concentration

What is concentration?

Concentration is the amount of substance dissolved in a fixed volume of solution. In other words it's: 

Amount of substance / Volume of solution

Main Points:

• The strength of the acid is relative to the % dissociated

That's why even if the acid has higher strength, if the concentration is higher, it can have a lower pH. This is the formula for pH by the way:

Anything with square brackets mean it's "concentration of" apparently.

• The concentration of H+ ions determines the pH

There are always H+ ions and OH- ions in every acid. The weaker the acid, the higher the amount of OH- ions and the lower the amount of H+ ions. Therefore, your H+ ions are relative to your acidity and the OH- ions to your basicity. 

If you still don't get it it's fine. Just remember that the higher the concentration of H+ ions, the lower the pH. 

Other points:

• pH is only dependant on the concentration of H+ ions.
• pH is non-linear

Acids and Bases: Dissociation

What's that?

Dissociation is really just "to take apart what was associated". In chemistry terms, it is 

Splitting a soluble substance in water into ions. 

The simplest formula would be:

AB --> A + B

Here are some other facts:

• During dissociation, the ionic bonds are broken, but the covalent ones are not.
• Dissociation is actually a reversible process due to equilibrium, but the amount it so small it's really almost negligible.
• Dissolving is a dissociation process.

Acids and Bases: Bases

What are Bases?

Bases, according to this genius guy named Arrhenius (yes, they rhyme), is a substance that releases hydroxide (OH⁻) ions. These substances react to acids to give salt and water only. All metal oxides and hydroxides can act as bases. Here are some examples of bases:

Here are the properties pertaining to ALL bases:

1. They turn red litmus paper blue; and on blue litmus paper the paper remains blue

2. They have a bitter taste and soapy feel

3. They react with acids to form salt and water only

4. When heated up with an ammonium salt, ammonia gas is produced

5. Strong bases can dissolve in water to form solutions that can conduct electricity 

Soluble bases, which are also strong bases, are called alkalis. 

Extra bits: Not all metal oxides and hydroxides are alkalis. This is because not all of them are soluble, a property of alkalis.

Acids and Bases: Acids

What are Acids?

Acids are substances that release hydrogen ions when dissolved in water. They can be classified as weak or strong as seen in this table:

And their properties are as the following:

1. Acids have a sour taste (Not that you should ever taste them)

2. Acids turn blue litmus paper red

3. Acids react with reactive metals to form hydrogen and salt

4. Acids react with metal oxides and hydroxides to form salt and water only.

5. Strong acids dissolve in water to form solutions that can conduct electricity


Extra bits:
The reason why strong acids are stronger electrolytes is because they form ionic compounds. When an ionic compound has charged particles, it can conduct electricity.