How to determine if acids/bases are strong, weak, or non electrolytes?
The sad, simple answer is that you’re just going to have to memorize them. The happy, second answer is that you can (relatively) safely assume every acid will be weak unless it is one of these: HCl (hydrochloric acid) HBR (hydrobromic acid) HI (hydroiodic acid) HClO4 (perchloric acid) H2SO4 (sulfuric acid) (But only the first dissociation!!!) HNO3 (nitric acid) Likewise, here is a list of the most common strong bases: KOH (Potassium hydroxide) Ba(OH)2 (Barium hydroxide) CsOH (Caesium hydroxide) NaOH (Sodium hydroxide) Sr(OH)2 (Strontium hydroxide) Ca(OH)2 (Calcium hydroxide) LiOH (Lithium hydroxide) RbOH (Rubidium hydroxide) Mg(OH)2 (Magnesium hydroxide) Actually, on second thought, if the conjugate base is part of group 1 or 2, it’s probably a strong base. If it doesn’t fall under one of those lists, it probably isn’t strong. Now, here’s a couple other tips: Whenever you see the term “COOH” or “COO-” they are talking about a carboxylic acid. This is a whole class of weak acids. Whenev
