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Strongest Possible Acid?


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If a H+ ion is needed in all acidic compunds and the more H+ ions you have the more acidic something is. If you had a beaker of pure H+ ions, i.e protons, in theory, would this be the most acidic thing possible; and if so would it react even with noble gases and platinum etc.

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Cap'n Refsmmat said in post # :

The strongest acid is Aqua Regia (royal water) It burns through every metal but silver.

 

that is not true!

sure it`s the acid that will dissolve Gold, but it`s not the Strongest acid based on PH.

Perchloric acid would beat Aqua Regia anyday so would sulphuric actualy :)

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The answer is based on the solvent and how you measure what a strong acid is. In your cases you assume the solvent was water and therefore for a strong acid the formastion of a proton is 100% guaranteed for a strong acid. HF only form a few protons since it tends to remain molecular so it is considered a weak acid, but one which can do much damage to skin and other metals. The model here is called the Bronsted Lowery acid.

 

Ag

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A strong acid in water is one with a pH < 1 which would include hydrochloric ( HCl), nitric (HNO3), and perchloric (HClO4) as examples. Sulfuric is strong but has a unique problem since not of its protons are lost in water so it not considered a strong Bronsted Lowery acid although one proton goes fast into solution.

Lastly, a beaker of protons is a good idea but not feasible since a negative conter ion must be resence other wise a potenitial difference exits and by touching the beaker a big shock would await you.

 

 

One off the true strongest acids is a mixutre of HF and antimony pentafluride ( forgot the solvent) but it will protonate a saturated hydrocarbon such as pentane to form a positively charged speiecs associated with the antmony hexafluride anion. But in this system pH has no meaning since only applies to a water based system. Experiments were conducted by George Olah.

 

 

HF is weak because it has an equilibrium in water that lies mostly to HF side not H+ and F- side where the definition for strenght is based on amount of protons in the water. For the strong acids the formation of the proton is 100% but for HF far less.

 

 

 

Need to define how you want to describe strong. By desctruction of metal, human tissue, rabiit skin, minnows in water or some other basis. then you would have to experiment with this basis and compare. Usually strength of acids in common terms means destruction of metals or human tissue but this not good enough for fundamental understanding.

 

ag

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Sorry but when I type the answer and it runs long the system throws me out of being logged in and I loose the posting so have to retype. So was just poasting short answers to allow for the posting. If there is a setting I need to change or somethign like that please let e know or tell me where to go to find out the answer.

 

My many postings were not meant to be nasty or vivious only trying to be complete.

 

Thakns for the help,

 

Ag

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Protons, by itself would be in a gaseous state, just heat hydrogen atoms to a high temperature. Acidity, most commonly pertains to reactions in aqueous solutions and thus the above does not apply. In water acidity is maintained by the presence of a strong acid, and its weak conjugate base.

 

HF is an exception to the acid trend of its group since its bond dissociation energy outweighs its characteristic as an acid due to its polarity.

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I think we need to just say what is, not why.

 

No. We need to say in what way is it strong before we can define the stongest. There are different definitions and meanings to the word so it's pretty futile to carry on without defining what we are talking about.

 

Hydrogen Flouride will etch glass and we keep other acids in glass which remains untouched therefore hydrogen flouride is stronger. Wrong.

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Yeah - that's my point. Not that Hydrogen Flouride is the only acid to etch glass but that just because suphuric, hydrochloric and nitric don't doesn't make them less strong necessarily.

 

It's a bit like asking which person in the world is the best. We need to know best at what otherwise we can't answer the question.

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If you're comparing relative abilities to etch glass (assuming your spectrum of agents all do etch glass), surely it goes like this:

 

1 ---------------- 7 ---------------- 14

Strong --------- Weak --------- Strong

 

Course, that assumption is kind of critical. If it's "any old agent" then it's a really bad comparison.

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