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Ch.16 - Aqueous Equilibria: Acids & Bases

Chapter 16, Problem 55

The hydronium ion H3O+ is the strongest acid that can exist in aqueous solution because stronger acids dissociate by transferring a proton to water. What is the strongest base that can exist in aqueous solution?

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welcome back everyone stronger assets dissociate by transferring a proton to water. Making the hydro ni um ion the strongest acid that can exist in an aqueous solution which of these bases is the strongest one that can exist in an aqueous solution. So based on what the prompt tells us, we have a strong acid H. A. Which can transfer a proton to water. So if it's transferring a proton to water, that means that our strong acid is reacting as specifically a bronze stead acid and water is our base or Bronston base, accepting that proton. And so we would form according to the prompt hydro ni um as well as our conjugate acid which now lost a proton as a minus. So in order to find our answer for the strongest space, we would just go opposite of this trend where we would have a base react with water where our base we should see will now accept a proton from water. And so water is now going to be the donor of the proton, where our base will accept the proton. And we're going to form our protein, ated base which would be H. B. Plus and we would be left with hydroxide as our conjugate base of water. Since in this case water is acting as an acid. And because we have observed that hydroxide is our conjugate base that is produced. We can confirm that the correct choice to complete this example is going to be choice a being hydroxide as the strongest base that can exist in an aqueous solution. I hope that everything I explained was clear. If you have any questions, please leave them down below and I'll see everyone in the next practice video.