Chapter 1, Problem 7P

Interpretation Introduction

Interpretation:

The pH of the 0.1 M acetic acid solution needs to be determined.

Concept introduction:

The dissociation of a weak acid is shown as follows:

$\text{HA}\rightleftharpoons {\text{ A}}^{-}+{\text{H}}^{+}$

Here, $K_a$ is the acid dissociation constant. The expression for the acid dissociation constant is as follows:

$K_a=\frac{\left[{\text{A}}^{-}\right]\left[{\text{H}}^{+}\right]}{\left[\text{HA}\right]}$

Here, $\left[\text{HA}\right]$ is the concentration of weak acid, $\left[{\text{A}}^{-}\right]$ is the concentration of conjugate base and $\left[{\text{H}}^{+}\right]$ is the concentration of hydrogen ion.