The Student Room Group
Competition - post a photo you've taken of nature >>
Competition - post a photo you've taken of nature >>
Competition - post a photo you've taken of nature >>

Sulfuric vs. sulfurous acid

What would approximate pH's be for these 2 acids?

I got taught that sulfuric acid is ~1 and sulfurous acid is ~3, however, the internet suggests sulfurous is slightly stronger at ~1.5.
Original post by Rexx18
What would approximate pH's be for these 2 acids?

I got taught that sulfuric acid is ~1 and sulfurous acid is ~3, however, the internet suggests sulfurous is slightly stronger at ~1.5.


pH depends on the concentration of the acid in solution, The pKa values provide a more useful measure of the acidicity of a given acid (dont worry if you haven't come across pKa before, it follows a similar scale to pH.

These can be estimated by Pauling's pKa rules which suggest that

sulfuric acid: pKa = -2 (literature says -3)

sulfurous acid: pKa = 3 (literature says 1.86)

so sulfuric acid is significantly stronger than sulfurous acid

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you